Showing posts sorted by relevance for query ppe. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query ppe. Sort by date Show all posts

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

30 June 2021: COVID in a NY State-Run Nursing Home

Piles of PPE Left to Rot Outside State-Run Queens Nursing Home

This report describes the current day problem of an abundance of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at a state-run nursing home for veterans, the New York State Veterans' Home at St. Albans. It also provides background information from when it experienced shortages of PPE during the coronavirus pandemic, describing how the facility was operated during the period the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. The following excerpts focus on that period:

Over a year ago, supply shortages at the height of the coronavirus epidemic were so acute that three nurses in a Manhattan hospital were forced to don garbage bags in lieu of medical gowns to protect themselves.

Staffers at the St. Albans veterans facility recall experiencing similar desperation at the time, when nursing homes were particularly hard-hit by the virus.

“When we needed the PPE we couldn’t even get it,” said one employee. “Now it’s being wasted.”

The facility is operated by New York's State Department of Health (NYDOH), which prioritized providing PPE to hospitals in early 2020. The next excerpt describes how care at the facility was provided and how the Cuomo administration's undercounting of COVID deaths among its residents was exposed:

As THE CITY has previously reported, staffers sounded the alarm in May 2020 that the state-run facility wasn’t properly isolating residents with presumed or even confirmed COVID, and kept them in shared rooms with a roommate not known to be ill.

The facility also failed to assign dedicated staffers to treat the residents known or presumed to have coronavirus — even though the state Department of Health required such separation in facilities with confirmed COVID cases to limit the potential spread of virus by staff.

Just before Memorial Day last year, staffers provided THE CITY with a list of the residents who had died of COVID-19, in an act of defiance intended to call attention to the state’s undercounting of deaths of veterans at the home.

The list identified 48 residents who died, at a time when state officials were acknowledging at most 35 coronavirus-related deaths.

Since the St. Albans nursing home is operated by NYDOH, it reflects how the Cuomo administration's disastrous COVID policies for nursing homes were implemented in a facility over which it had direct control. It's a microcosm of Governor Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals.

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Saturday, March 27, 2021

27 March 2021: Editorial - The Needs of Grieving Families

Editorial: Grieving families still need closure

The editors of the New York Daily News identify why Governor Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandal stands above all of Governor Cuomo's other scandals:

There are several reasons that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is under fire from so many quarters, but one stands out among all the others because it ensnared so many New Yorkers — the nursing home scandal. Put simply, thousands of family members are still grieving over the loss of loved ones to COVID-19 — deaths they argue could have been prevented. Furthermore, the survivors say, the governor and state health officials lied to them to covered up their own carelessness.

That’s why scores of family members and friends of loved ones who died from COVID-19 in nursing homes joined lawmakers outside the state Capitol on Thursday to mourn the thousands of New Yorkers who died in adult-care facilities and designate a statewide day of remembrance in their honor.

They gathered on the one-year anniversary of the state Health Department’s now-infamous March 25, 2020, memorandum, which allowed COVID-positive residents to return to their nursing homes or adult-care facilities to recover. Adding to the dismay of families, the memo remained in effect until last May 10 and is not found on the Health Department’s website.

We'll interject here to provide important background information:

Continuing with the editorial:

Hard as it is to believe, more than 9,000 patients recovering from COVID-19 last year were discharged from hospitals and sent back to the state’s 613 nursing homes. More than 15,000 New York nursing home residents died from COVID-19 complications since the state’s first official case March 1, including those outside the facility in hospitals or hospice and presumed virus fatalities when testing was scarce.

Here is where the cited figures for number of transferred COVID patients and New York nursing home resident fatalities make their first appearances in the timeline:

Back to the editorial:

Harder to accept, the state reported just under 9,000 deaths until state Attorney General Letitia James released a report two months ago that the state undercounted the total virus-related nursing home fatalities up to 55%.

Here's when that blockbuster story erupted in the Cuomo nursing home scandals' timeline:

This is why the attorney general was correct to point out in her report that the March 25 Department of Health guidance was consistent with and followed federal guidance issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — but it was not a directive to accept COVID-19 patients if they could not otherwise provide appropriate care. As it turns out, the nursing homes understood the guidance but the state somehow did not. Family members and staff alike have said nursing homes were unprepared with Personal Protective Equipment, testing and personnel to successfully keep the virus at bay.

This section covers multiple topics, which we've covered in the timeline! First, let's look at where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) guidance for nursing homes intersects with the timeline:

Here's the timeline's summary of contemporary reports related to the lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), testing, and personnel at New York nursing homes:

Here's the Daily News' editors final word:

March 25, 2020, italicizes the difference between obstinacy and empathy and the need for accountability and justice for bereft families.

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Thursday, March 18, 2021

18 March 2021: NY Nursing Homes "More Petrified" of NY DOH Than COVID

Cuomo order to take in COVID-19 patients 'petrified' New York nursing home administrator

This report discusses how the Cuomo administration's toxic culture was imposed onto New York's nursing homes, which were forced to comply with the New York Department of Health's deadly 25 March 2020 directive:

A Staten Island nursing home administrator told Fox News in an exclusive interview that he and executives at other facilities were "petrified" by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's infamous March 2020 order that COVID-positive patients be placed in long-term care facilities rather than hospitals.

However, Michael Kraus told Fox News correspondent Aishah Hasnie that his concerns were "shot down" by state officials.

Fox News has posted a brief excerpt from Aishah Hasnie's interview with Staten Island nursing home administrator Michael Kraus, which will air later today. He describes raising concerns for bringing COVID patients into nursing home facilities with state DOH officials, then being shot down into silence:

The resulting catastrophe among New York's nursing home residents did not happen by accident. It took a concerted effort by many in New York's state government to make it happen.

PM Update: New York nursing home whistleblower: Cuomo's order was 'ridiculous,' warned officials 'we can't be doing this'

Here's a report of the interview:

Michael Kraus, the administrator of the Silver Lakes Specialized Care Center in Staten Island, said he immediately raised the alarm after first hearing about the March 25, 2020, order in a conference call with other directors, hospital leaders and state officials.

"I said that's ridiculous. We can't be doing this. It's just not right to the residents," Kraus told Fox News in an exclusive interview with correspondent Aishah Hasnie that aired Thursday on "America Reports."

"And you vocalized that on these phone conversations?" Hasnie asked.

"I did vocalize it," Kraus said. "And then once it was shot down, I never spoke again."

Kraus -- for the first time -- revealed what happened behind the scenes following the controversial directive in New York, where more than 15,000 people are confirmed to have died in state nursing homes and long-term care facilities from COVID-19.

Kraus describes why nursing homes could not obtain supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect their staffs and residents:

At the time the initial order was in place -- with the coronavirus rapidly spreading throughout New York City -- Kraus says found his facility in the midst of the PPE shortage, as "our suppliers [who] would normally send us the PPE were not allowed to send us our full order."

"Why?" Hasnie asked.

"Because they were guided, they must sell to the hospital first," Kraus said. "So we were rationed, if we would order a large order, they would maybe give us 20%. And they just said they weren't allowed to sell us more."

If you ever wanted to know what life would be like with single payer health care, Governor Cuomo's New York during the coronavirus pandemic provides a good example of how it works.

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Wednesday, August 12, 2020

12 August 2020: NY Health Commissioner Stonewalls Legislators, Denies PPE Shortages at Nursing Homes

New York State health leader gives no answer on nursing home deaths

Howard Zucker, New York's top public health official, continued stonewalling on reporting the true number of nursing home deaths in New York during testimony before a joint coronavirus review committee of New York's legislature.

NY Health Commissioner Dismisses Media Reports of PPE Shortages

Cuomo administration member Zucker also sought to deny the state failed to ensure nursing homes had adequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect staff and residents against coronavirus infections, contradicting multiple media reports (just scroll up) during the state's coronavirus epidemic.

Relatives Of Nursing Home Residents Speak Out At Hearing

Families of nursing home residents who died during the state's coronavirus epidemic point to the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive as a primary reason for their elderly, sick relatives becoming infected by the deadly virus.

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Saturday, February 20, 2021

20 February 2021: Cuomo Accused of Corruption in Gifting Legal Immunity to Nursing Homes For COVID Deaths

Andrew Cuomo Caved to Donors As He Shielded Nursing Home Bosses, Ron Kim Says

This interview with New York Assemblyman Ron Kim focuses on the role that immunity from prosecution for negligence that Governor Cuomo delivered to his campaign contributors from the nursing home industry may have played in contributing to the spread of COVID-19 within New York's nursing homes. Here's a key excerpt of the Q&A:

In April, Governor Cuomo put a provision into the state budget that granted legal immunity to all health care facilities, including nursing homes, and including the executives of those facilities. How did the corporate immunity order affect the situation, and how does it connect to the Cuomo administration underreporting nursing-home data?

Up to 9,000 COVID patients were being sent to nursing homes. And the nursing homes were telling the administration—which now the AG's report shows—that we can't take these people in. Like, "Half of our staff got COVID, they're out. We don't have enough staff, we don't have the PPE." And at that moment, Cuomo decided to give them legal immunity. That was their solution to that crisis, to the industry asking to be included in broad legal immunity.

They decided to protect the business interests of those who should have done everything possible, spent every dollar, to save people's lives. But the moment they got the legal immunity, it was clear that they felt like they didn't have to invest anymore in PPE, or hire more staff members. They completely shut down. They had a license to kill. That's what the immunity was.

The problems that nursing homes were having in obtaining personal protective equipment (PPE) were well known at the time Governor Cuomo opted to provide legal immunity for the nursing home industry on 20 April 2020 via the Emergency Disaster Treatment Protection Act (EDTPA). You can find out more of that history in this entry for 3 May 2020. If you check the entry for 20 April 2020, you'll find that Governor Cuomo was claiming he didn't know coronavirus-infected patients were being transferred from New York's hospitals to nursing homes to free up bed space.

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Sunday, June 06, 2021

6 June 2021: Michigan's Whitmer Administration Warned of Deadly Consequences of Its Version of Cuomo's COVID Nursing Home Directive

LeDuff: Elderly Covid Deaths In Michigan Don't Add Up. Why Doesn't The Media Care More?

In his column critquing the poor media coverage of both New York and Michigan's COVID nursing home deaths scandals, which we featured in a separate timeline entry focusing on that subject, columnist Charlie LeDuff also broke news related to Michigan Govenor Gretchen Whitmer's version of the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive:

The latest smoking gun? A memo from the Health Care Association of Michigan, which represents nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities. It was sent to the Whitmer administration and the Department of Health and Human Services on April 16, 2020. It reads in part:

Mandate that facility with census below 80% establish a Covid-19 dedicated unit

... the vast majority of nursing facilities will be mandated to create a dedicated hub, with no funding or PPE to care for Covid-19 affected residents. While most buildings will be forced to do this, many will not be able to because of physical plant restrictions, the lack of adequate PPE, and insufficient staff to care for these residents.

Even worse, this provision will introduce Covid-19 into units where it is not yet present, endangering residents who are the most vulnerable to this virus. Because of these dangers and restrictions, this provision should be eliminated.

But the provision was not eliminated. Rather, Whitmer signed the executive order the next day.

Politicians and the press -- I can't tell much difference anymore. But no matter which side of the aisle you sit on, no matter which master we serve, we should all want the truth. There's nothing progressive about letting old people die in the darkness.

To the best of our knowledge, LeDuff is breaking news with his reporting of the Health Care Association of Michigan's "smoking gun" memo. We also think he may be off on where it fits within the timeline, so let's look more closely at that aspect of the story.

The executive order to which LeDuff refers was issued on 15 April 2020, where the Health Care Association of Michigan's memo was written the following day according to LeDuff's dates. As such, the "smoking gun" memo would represent the Health Care Association of Michigan's warning to the Whitmer administration what they believed would be the consequences from the executive order Governor Whitmer issued the day before.

The scandal would still be the failure of the Whitmer administration to either modify or rescind the policy it established after it was warned of its potential consequences by the group whose members would be charged with implementing it. They cannot say they were not told, nor that they did not know. They were warned and they chose to let Governor Whitmer's deadly executive order run unchanged for months afterward.

Here is related coverage from the timeline:

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Saturday, March 20, 2021

20 March 2021: Anti-Cuomo Rallies, CNN's Falling Ratings, and What the Second Wave of COVID in Nursing Homes Says About the First

Anti-Cuomo protesters want Cuomo resignation over nursing home deaths:

Anti-Cuomo rally in New York City, first Cuomo sexual harassment accuser Lindsey Boylan speaks:

Boylan made a very valid point in her comments at the rally:

"When the Governor should have been focused on leading us out of this pandemic, he instead focused on covering up the deaths of 15,000 New Yorkers, and smearing me and my reputation."

In a lot of ways, the sexual harassment allegations are being used by New York Democrats, including Governor Cuomo, to distract attention away from the Cuomo administration's COVID nursing home deaths scandals. The Cuomo administration has only tainted itself in its actions against Boylan.

In other news, the "Cuomo Show" isn't what it used to be:

Just a reminder that Peak Cuomo was reached for CNN's cheerleader-style coverage of Governor Andrew Cuomo on 6 May 2020. It's not often you see a news network choose to shred all its journalistic credibility, which entered its rapid collapse phase on 21 May 2020.

The final article in today's roundup relates to how a handful of New York nursing homes never got their act together in preventing the spread of COVID in their facilities. A failure that carried a price when the second wave of COVID came in the fall and winter of 2020:

The report points to the role of nursing home workers as superspreaders within the most affected facilities. By contrast, most other facilities saw much fewer infections, including those that experienced severe outbreaks and deaths during the first wave of COVID infections in New York.

The difference between the earlier and later waves in these other nursing homes may be attributable to the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive and other policies that limited the nursing homes ability to obtain PPE during the first, deadlier wave. The 25 March 2020 directive would have contributed to the initial exposure of nursing home workers to COVID while it was in effect, while the lack of sufficient PPE supplies would contribute to its rapid spread within the facilities during that period.

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Wednesday, April 15, 2020

15 April 2020: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer Issues a Potentially Deadly Directive

Michigan Gov. Whitmer signs EO to protect people working, living in long-term care facilities

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's Executive Order 2020-50 was issued on 15 April 2020. Here is how it was reported:

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-50 to establish procedures in long-term care facilities to protect the health and safety of both their employees and residents.

At many of Michigan’s long-term care facilities residents and employees live and work in confined spaces. There is also a lack of personal protective equipment. A positive coronavirus (COVID-19) test can threaten the safety of the entire facility.

"The spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on residents and employees at Michigan's long-term care facilities," Whitmer said. “That's why I am taking action to implement policies that will protect the most people we can in those facilities. I know this is a hard time for Michigan's elderly residents, their families, and the hardworking staff who work with them every day. I will continue to do everything in my power to protect Michiganders everywhere from the spread of this virus. We will get through this together."

That sounds like noble intentions, but there are aspects of Executive Order 2020-50 that echo New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive. Here's a directly relevant excerpt from Section III of the executive order:

5. Once a long-term care facility resident who has been hospitalized due to onset of one or more of the principal symptoms of COVID-19 becomes medically stable and eligible for discharge in the judgment of the resident’s medical providers, a hospital must discharge the resident in accordance with the following protocol:

  1. If the long-term care facility where the resident resided prior to the onset of one or more of the principal symptoms of COVID-19 ("facility of residence") has a dedicated unit and provides appropriate PPE to the direct-care employees who staff the dedicated unit, the hospital must discharge the resident to their facility of residence for placement in the dedicated unit, provided there is available bed capacity.
  2. If a discharge in accordance with section 5(a) of this part is not available, the hospital must discharge the resident to a regional hub, provided there is available bed capacity.
  3. If a discharge in accordance with section 5(a) or 5(b) of this part is not available, the hospital must transfer the resident to any alternate care facility with available bed capacity in accordance with the following protocol:
    1. Any alternate care facility within the state that has available bed capacity to receive the resident must accept a transfer authorized by this order.
    2. An alternate care facility must discharge a long-term care facility resident to the facility of residence as soon as capacity allows. If the facility of residence lacks available capacity, the alternate care facility must transfer the resident to a regional hub. If a regional hub receives a resident under this part, it must transfer the resident to the facility of residence as soon as capacity allows.

6. For any transfer or discharge of a resident, the transferring or discharging entity must ensure that the resident’s advance directive accompanies the resident and must disclose the existence of any advance directive to medical control at the time medical control assistance is requested.

7. Any long-term care facility that has a dedicated unit and provides appropriate PPE to the direct-care employees who staff the dedicated unit must admit anyone that it would normally admit as a resident, regardless of whether the individual has recently been discharged from a hospital treating COVID-19 patients.

Note the repeated use of the word "must", which requires alternate care facilities and long-term care facilities like nursing homes to admit the patient transferred under this protocol. As a result, although the "medically stable" condition justifying the transfer a COVID patient could potentially mean they were still contagious, that would be a path for spreading COVID infections at the facilities receiving them.

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Wednesday, April 07, 2021

7 April 2021: No Answers From New Jersey DOH

Still No Answers In Case Of NJ 'Makeshift Morgue' Nursing Home

The story of what happened in New Jersey's nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic continues to develop, as the impact of Governor Phil Murphy's choice to copy and paste Governor Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive has severe repercussions. This article covers the ongoing cover-up of one aspect related to Governor Murphy's decision to model himself into a Mini-Me version of Governor Cuomo.

It has been nearly a year since the Andover Subacute & Rehab Center II made headlines after stacking more than a dozen bodies in a temporary facility, referred to as a "makeshift morgue" by officials. But answers as to what happened over that long Easter weekend are still scarce as Open Public Records Act requests continue to go unfilled.

Like many members of the Garden State media, the County of Sussex continues to wait on OPRA requests. County Counsel Kevin D. Kelly first contacted New Jersey's Department of Health on May 1, 2020 and May 12, 2020, for 19 different types of records. Kelly's last correspondence with the state was in August, when Murphy Administration Department of Health officials requested another extension, officials said.

Among the documents Kelly asked for, were routine and complaint inspection reports for the Subacute facilities, the Department of Health's communications with Andover Subacute's legal counsel Christopher Porrino, communications between the state and County of Sussex and Andover Subacute's personal protective equipment or PPE inventory.

The stonewalling by New Jersey's Department of Health contradicts Murphy's claims of valuing both transparency and accountability and would appear to extend to other government agencies:

"The governor often says he's being 'crystal clear,'" said Commissioner Director Dawn Fantasia. "I'll tell you what's crystal clear. The New Jersey Department of Health and the Murphy Administration were clearly warned. Warned that patients would die. Warned that by demanding long-term care facilities - facilities that were in no way prepared with adequate staffing, adequatetraining, or adequate PPE - take COVID patients, that patients would die who wouldn't have otherwise, died had positive patients been screened."

It is true, Murphy has maintained all along at numerous COVID briefings that his administration was clear in their orders. That COVID patients returning to facilities would have to be kept separately either by floor or by wing and that separation had to include staff. The Department of Health guidelines Murphy referred to noted that facilities that could not make that happen should contact the Department of Health for assistance.

"Why can't we get a simple inspection document?" Commissioner Herbert Yardley said. "Is there something they [New Jersey's Department of Health] don't want us to see?"

Here is related coverage from the timeline:

To the best of our knowledge, President Biden stopped all the DOJ's active investigations into the governors who compelled nursing homes in their states to admit COVID patients being dumped from hospitals to free up bed space shortly after being sworn into office. By doing so, President Biden effectively gifted federal criminal immunity to the governors who adopted these policies. The DOJ was forced to restart its probe of New York's COVID nursing homes scandals after a senior Cuomo administration official acknowledged they covered up the full extent of COVID deaths among care home residents in the state.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

17 March 2021: Safety at New Jersey Nursing Homes Compromised

Family of Nurse Who Died of COVID at Troubled NJ Nursing Home Gets Validation

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and his administration copied many of the policies that created New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's multiple nursing home scandals. This article describes the story of Edgar Alberto, a nurse at at Andover, New Jersey nursing home who had no idea the patients he was treating has been transferred from hospitals where they had been treated for COVID-19. It also shares the situation of short supplies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for nursing home staff, which contributed to his exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and ultimately to his death from COVID-19.

Alberto's widow, Mary Jane Mustera, said her husband and the other employees were taking care of the patients, but "they didn't know who was a COVID patient." She said her husband was also worried about inadequate PPE.

"The protection that he needs, they need, they didn't give it," Mustera said an interview with the I-Team.

Alberto, who had an 11-year-old son, died in the hospital the same week that the gruesome discovery was made, with the bodies of several patients found stacked in the makeshift morgue at the facility. His widow couldn't process what had happened to him.

The validation mentioned in the headline comes from the federal government's confirmation of the conditions that contributed to Alberto's death.

State and federal investigations in Spring 2020 found lases in inspection control and a systemic failure in basic protocols. But a few weeks ago, Mustera got a specific letter from OSHA about her husband's death. It noted breakdowns in required N-95 mask protections, and labeled the violations as "serious."

For the failures, Andover was penalized more than $22,000, which the management agreed to pay.

"If only they give him the protection ... he'd still be alive," Mustera said.

"All the investigations that I've done representing people, there is an indication not only that OSHA looked into a specific death, but there were findings as to the violations that caused and led to someone's death," said the family's attorney Juan Fernandez.

For more background, see Political Calculations' analysis of What Happened in New Jersey's Nursing Homes, which was posted on May 21, 2020.

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Sunday, March 28, 2021

28 March 2021: Tom DiNapoli Holding Up State Investigation of Cuomo Nursing Home Scandals

One Man Is Standing in the Way of an Investigation into Cuomo's Nursing Home Scandal

This report explores why New York State Attorney General Letitia James has not yet begun a criminal investigation of the Cuomo administration's cover-up of the full extent of COVID nursing home resident deaths, despite uncovering and presenting evidence of it.

In January, New Yorkers were shocked to learn that the actual Covid-19 death tolls in the state’s nursing homes were as much as 50 percent higher than what had previously been disclosed. The misreporting, which was revealed in a report released by New York Attorney General Tish James on January 28, meant that thousands of deaths may have gone uncounted. And many of these deaths occurred in the early days of the pandemic, as Cuomo told hospitals to send coronavirus-positive patients back to the facilities, leading to rapid spread of the virus.

That scandal gained legs in February when the top aide to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, said that the misreporting was deliberate; Cuomo’s office wanted to throw off an investigation into the state’s handling of nursing homes. “We were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, and what we start saying, was going to be used against us and we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation,” she said on a conference call with Democratic legislators....

James has not, however, begun an investigation into the Cuomo administration on its actions last spring, for a bureaucratic reason: She needs a referral from either Cuomo himself or Tom DiNapoli, the state’s low-profile comptroller, who has served since 2007. James has the statutory authority to investigate nursing homes, hence the January 28 report. She does not have the statutory authority to launch an investigation with subpoena power into the Cuomo administration without DiNapoli’s referral. (Theoretically, James could decline to investigate Cuomo’s handling of the nursing home crisis even if she received the referral from DiNapoli, though that seems very unlikely given her willingness to investigate the issue so far.)

The article identifies a political reason why DiNapoli has not acted to provide the formal referral needed to launch that investigation:

A nursing home investigation has the potential to be explosive for a much broader range of actors than just Cuomo, and DiNapoli is himself considering a run for governor. While DiNapoli, a mainstream Democrat who nonetheless has occasionally clashed with Cuomo, is among the Democratic politicians calling for Cuomo’s resignation over sexual harassment claims, so far his office has declined to make a referral. Most of the leading Democrats calling for his resignation have not specifically referred to the nursing home scandal, with a notable exception being powerful state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a longtime Cuomo foil who assailed his “loss of credibility surrounding the Covid-19 nursing home data” in addition to “allegations about sexual harassment.”...

A full spectrum investigation by James into the Cuomo administration’s handling of the nursing home crisis could expose a much broader set of powerful actors in the state — actors that DiNapoli, who is considering a run for governor, would confront by making the referral demanded by the families of nursing home Covid-19 victims. “I would imagine that [the lobby groups] don’t want any more investigations into their potential pay to play schemes,” said New York Assembly Member Ron Kim, a Democrat. “The timeline proves [pay to play] may have happened around corporate immunity.”

That agrees with our previous analysis on the topic. It took a lot of teamwork within the Cuomo administration to impose and enforce its deadly 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit COVID patients from hospitals seeking to free up bed space without testing to see if they were still contagious. It also took a lot of teamwork to ration Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to favor hospital employees at the expense of nursing homes, which greatly increased the risk nursing home employees would become infected and become superspreaders within the facilities where they worked because of the resulting shortages of PPE.

The focus on Governor Cuomo's sexual harassment scandals would appear designed to limit the damage to a lot of members of the Democratic Party in New York. To rectify that problem and begin cleaning house throughout the state government, Tom DiNapoli needs to stand up and formally request the state attorney general's investigation with subpoena power. Without it, justice for the families of victims of Governor Cuomo's COVID nursing home policies will be denied. Without it, Tom DiNapoli's personal integrity will always be found lacking. What legacy does Tom DiNapoli want to have for his career in public service? Who's interest will he choose to serve?

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Wednesday, April 22, 2020

22 April 2020: No PPE for NY Nursing Homes

Gov. Cuomo says ‘it’s not our job’ to provide PPE to nursing homes

This article reveals Governor Cuomo's apparent contempt for elderly New Yorkers and confirms his administration saw no problem with diverting resources like protective personal equipment from the nursing home facilities the state regulates and which they knew were at very high risk to directly benefit state and local government employees. If you want to know what life would be like under a Medicare for All single-payer health care system, this should tell you everything you need to know about how the people who would run such a system would choose to allocate resources within it in making life-and-death decisions.

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Sunday, June 14, 2020

14 June 2020: Cuomo Administration Shorted PPE Supplies for Nursing and Group Homes

Watchdog tells feds NY shorted group homes on masks, gowns during height of virus

This report follows the the story of a complaint filed by Disability Rights New York, which it identifies as a "federally funded nonprofit watchdog" on 7 April 2020 regarding how state officials were allocating personal protective equipment among group homes, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities that provide care for disabled residents in New York. Here's an excerpt describing the environment these facilities were put under by the Cuomo administration's policies for allocating scarce resources like personal protective equipment (PPE):

Operators of group homes at the apex of the virus – March through May -- had to scrounge, scouring pharmacies for masks, often paying price-gouging costs, pleading with county disaster offices, and wearing homemade face coverings and disposable protection that sometimes had to be reused, according to interviews with Disability Rights New York, group home operators and their residents’ advocates.

The Cuomo administration appears to have prioritized the interests of public hospitals, which are run by officials appointed by state or local governments, at the expense of all other health care facilities in the state of New York during the state's 2020 coronavirus epidemic, which were apparently viewed as dumping grounds by the state's public health officials. Like the elderly at the state's nursing homes, the disabled are victims of systematic discrimination against them by Cuomo administration.

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Friday, June 04, 2021

4 June 2021: Advocates for Disabled Living in Group Homes Demand More Resources

Advocates: Protect people in group homes amid COVID

Governor Cuomo's COVID policies for group homes, which represent a smaller scale version of the administration's COVID nursing home deaths scandals, has been percolating in the background during the last few months. Now, advocates for the disabled are raising the profile of that story in a bid to gain more state resources from New York's legislature.

New York failed to provide desperately needed protective gear, testing and help with staffing for group homes serving residents with developmental and intellectual disabilities at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders of those homes and family members told lawmakers at a legislative hearing Thursday.

Staffing levels in New York’s system supporting individuals with disabilities have dwindled since the COVID-19 pandemic, which advocates say threatens the quality of care for some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers faced calls Thursday to boost pay for group home workers, require routine COVID-19 testing and ensure people with disabilities are a priority in response plans.

Among advocates concerns is that group homes, unlike nursing homes, aren’t required to regularly test staff for COVID-19 or launch rounds of testing after a resident or staffer test positive.

“It’s very troubling that people in group homes aren’t given the same protection as people in nursing homes and other congregate settings,” said Julie Keegan, a director with Disability Rights New York. “People in group homes often have higher rates of comorbidities that put them at higher risk of death. There is no rational basis for this discriminatory practice.”

At least 577 people have died due to confirmed COVID-19 infection at group residences overseen by the state’s Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, according to the agency’s latest data.

That tally doesn’t include the number of residents who died at hospitals, or deaths of residents who likely died of COVID-19.

Related background information from the timeline:

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Saturday, September 25, 2021

25 September 2021: Editorial - Zucker Owes Explanation to Grieving Families

Editorial: Zucker owes grieving families an explanation

This editorial from HudsonValley360 explains why the disgraced, retiring New York Health Commissioner Howard Zucker has a lot of explaining to do:

State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker's blind loyalty to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo undermined his tenure as much as allegations of sexual misconduct did to Cuomo's reputation and political career....

Under direct questioning from state lawmakers last August, Zucker refused to provide an updated count of the number of coronavirus-positive nursing home patients who died in New York hospitals and circumvented other inquiries about the state's handling of COVID-19 in congregate facilities.

Zucker's eagerness to avoid direct answers helped cement the Cuomo administration's reputation as a governmentthat made big noises about transparency and failed to demonstrate it. His lack of empathy toward the families of nursing home residents who died of COVID was a shameless bureaucratic exhibition.

Hochul clearly planned to clean house and replace Cuomo's legions with her own staffmembers, so Zucker's resgnation may look to some as an anticlimax. As he departs, though, Zucker needs to give those still-grieving families closure by coming clean and speaking the truth about what happened last summer.

Indeed. Zucker has much to answer for. Here are examples of what he needs to account for from the timeline:

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Thursday, November 25, 2021

25 November 2021: Cuomo Kept $5.12M Book Deal Secret from COVID Task Team Staffers

Cuomo’s early book dealings outrage officials tasked with pandemic response

Members of New York state's COVID task team are weighing in on the $5.12 million book deal that Andrew M. Cuomo negotiated in the early weeks coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 while they were overwhelmed by the crisis:

Officials who worked around-the-clock on the state’s early response to the coronavirus pandemic were livid after hearing that ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plot to publish a “leadership” book began on before the worst of the outbreak even hit New York.

“We were not even at the height of the pandemic in March [2020],” said one source who participated in the response to evidence unearthed in the Assembly Judiciary Committee’s impeachment probe report on Cuomo.

The governor’s emergency directive ordering the closure of non-essential businesses didn’t take place until March 22, 2020, but his literary agent had already started having conversation with publisher Penguin/Random House about the book three days earlier....

“We were scrambling to make sure we had enough hospital beds, that we had enough ventilators,” fumed the state official involved in the COVID-19 response, who requested anonymity because of ongoing probes of Cuomo.

That's not the only anonymous complaint from former Cuomo administration staffers who were unaware Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal had been struck:

Officials also expressed surprise by the whopping $5.1 million paycheck he’d receive for the tome.

“It’s making people wonder how that offer and those conversations so early on factored into the COVID response. If you were aware from the very early days [you were writing a book], how does it impact how you operationalize response and make decisions?,” a second official in the Cuomo team’s emergency response said.

“None of the rank and file staff knew about that.”

The Albany insider added, “It is frustrating because there were a lot of people working these insane hours and doing everything they could to build hospitals or set up testing sites or help with the response efforts and PPE and I think now all of that is going to be tainted by the fact in the background of all it there was a book deal being negotiated.”

The book deal gave Cuomo a large financial incentive to interject his "leadership" in New York's response to the coronavirus pandemic from which he would personally profit. His repeated interference in statewide and local public health responses produced both harmful and deadly consequences within New York.

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Monday, April 26, 2021

Major Milestones in Governor Cuomo's Nursing Home Deaths Scandals

When updating the timeline for New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 nursing home deaths scandals, we've noticed there are a number of events we keep referencing as new information becomes available. Here are those major milestones for quick reference!

Small Steps to Inevitable Tragedy in New York's Nursing Homes

Cuomo's Cover-up Begins as COVID Nursing Home Tragedy Deepens

Cuomo's Cover-up Ramps Up

Cuomo's Cover-up Collapses

Abuses of Power to Evade Consequences Begin, More Abuses Come to Light

Cuomo, Allies Fire Up Media Disinformation Campaign

Legal Developments in Cuomo Scandal Investigations

NY AG's Bombshell Report Corroborating Cuomo Sexual Harassment Drops, More Details of Misconduct Emerge

Cuomo's Support Network Collapses

Cuomo Announces Resignation

Agenda for Post-Cuomo Era Starts Being Defined

Cuomo Resigns

Aftermath Begins

Testimony, Reports Documenting Cuomo Misconduct Released

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