The New York Times
As the clamor for nursing homes grows, Cuomo attacks critics
ALBANY, NY – Trying to contain the growing outcry over the state’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo launched a 90-minute defense on Friday of his actions while criticizing critics he said were operating properly. “Toxic political environment.” Cuomo said he understood the outrage at the underestimation of deaths in these facilities, but insisted that no state policy contributed to that number. At the same time, however, the governor unveiled a series of reforms to address management and the safety of nursing homes, saying, “This is the only way families will have peace of mind.” Cuomo’s comments, during a one-and-a-half hour press conference at the state capitol, occurred as he faced one of the biggest political crises of his ten-year tenure, including a federal investigation of his administration and a shift in the governor’s fellow Democrats to take him out of emergency powers unilateral actions he exercised during the pandemic. Subscribe to the New York Times newsletter The Morning On Friday, another prominent Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Queens, joined a chorus of lawmakers supporting investigations into how the state dealt with asylums during the pandemic, noting that “thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers lost their lives”. “Your loved ones and the public deserve answers and transparency from your elected leadership,” said Ocasio-Cortez in a statement released during Cuomo’s press conference. The death toll is at the heart of the issues facing the Cuomo government. For months, the state now admits, the official death toll of residents in nursing homes and long-term care institutions has been largely underreported. The state counted the total losses, but they were attributed to the hospitals where the patients died, and not to the facilities where they lived, effectively hiding the impact of the pandemic on those facilities. But following a hard-hitting report three weeks ago by state attorney general Letitia James suggesting a large under-count of deaths in nursing home and long-term residents, the state has now updated those numbers, to more than 15,000 out of about 8,500 in the late January. On Friday, Cuomo said again that he accepted the blame for the insufficient count: “I take responsibility for all of that, period,” he said. In particular, the governor repeatedly said, his lack of openness in releasing accurate data created a space for the spread of false information. “We created a void by not producing enough public information quickly enough,” said Cuomo, “and conspiracy theories, politics and rumors fill the void.” But he simultaneously sought to reshape the debate, saying that criticism of it constituted politically motivated attacks by Republicans and others operating in a “toxic political environment”. Cuomo had repeated a similar message for much of the week, but the crisis showed no signs of abating. Earlier this week, Cuomo verbally attacked a Queens deputy, Ron Kim, after he told reporters at The New York Times and CNN that Cuomo had reprimanded him during a call, threatening to publicly denigrate the deputy and urging him to issue a statement to change his observations on the nursing home issue. On Friday, Kim reiterated his story to a national television audience during an appearance on ABC’s “The View”. “Cuomo is an aggressor,” said Kim, referring to the governor’s call to him last week. “He abused his powers. And abusers are cowards. Cuomo’s office characterized Kim as a liar, and the governor himself suggested on Wednesday that the deputy was corrupt, accusing him of unethical and possibly criminal behavior in relation to a 2015 law that governs manicure salons. (Kim denied the allegations.) Since Wednesday, Kim has received support from several Democrats in Albany and also from City Hall. “Look, I believe Ron Kim when he talks about what he experienced,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said on “The Brian Lehrer Show” at WNYC. “And I believe there must be a really thorough investigation here because something happened that potentially means people who lost their lives, relatives who could have been saved and there was no reckoning.” Democrats’ requests for investigations come in the wake of similar – and higher – requests from dozens of Republicans, both in New York and nationally, who saw Cuomo rise in prominence last year, largely because of his perceived competence in deal with the coronavirus crisis that devastated the state, killing more than 45,000 people. With an unbroken sequence of daily press conferences in the spring, Cuomo had received applause for a firm attitude and a fact-based approach. Last fall, that image was polished by a pandemic memoir – offering “lessons in leadership” – and the International Emmy Founders Award for “its masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world ”. But that image began to fade after the findings of the attorney general and other news emerged that Cuomo sometimes dismissed the advice of medical experts to guide his response to the pandemic. Questions about how the governor handled asylums have been widespread since March, when an advisory memorandum was issued asking these institutions to admit or readmit people positive for the virus, a measure Cuomo said was justified by federal guidelines and implemented for hospitals. I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with patients. Still, as deaths increased in nursing homes, it was speculated that the guideline – which was revoked in mid-May – could have caused the virus to spread to a vulnerable population. The controversy erupted in a public relations crisis a week ago, when Cuomo’s chief aide, Melissa DeRosa, admitted in a private conversation that the government had not provided state lawmakers with accurate death toll counts because of fears about an investigation. by the Justice Department of former President Donald Trump. Cuomo and Trump used to fight, and the governor was concerned that the investigation was politically motivated, DeRosa said, and that the information “was used against us”. “Basically, we froze,” DeRosa told lawmakers. This admission attracted the interest of FBI investigators and the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who began a preliminary investigation seeking information on the death count. Cuomo made no mention of the federal investigation on Friday, but he defended his health and administration department at length, saying, “I will not allow people to lie to the people of New York” about the causes of the deaths, adding the state’s reaction the epidemic “saved tens of thousands of lives”. Still, he also said he was saddened by the families who lost loved ones, recognizing that some factors are beyond his control. “If someone has the perfect answer to deaths in nursing homes and if someone says they do, they are lying,” he said. “Because people are going to die in nursing homes.” This article was originally published in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company