National Review
Cuomo will not apologize for the erroneous account of nursing homes, says “Who cares” where deaths are recorded
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the issue of coronavirus deaths in state asylums had become a “political football game” in his first public comments after Attorney General Letitia James discovered that his government had counted dramatically deaths in nursing homes. The state health department in April 2020 changed the way it reported coronavirus deaths among nursing home residents. Residents who died of COVID-19 on the premises were listed as deaths in nursing homes, while residents who died after being transported to a hospital were not included in this count. The change in reports has artificially reduced the true death toll. Health commissioner Howard Zucker admitted on Thursday night that 3,829 nursing home residents have died of COVID-19 in a hospital since the pandemic began, bringing the total number of deaths in nursing homes from 8,914 to 12,743, a 43 percent jump. “Look, if a person died in a hospital or in a nursing home, people died.” Cuomo told reporters on Friday. My father “was in a hospital, he was transferred to a nursing home. My dad died. My father was in a nursing home, he was transferred to a hospital. My dad died. People died. “Cuomo added:” If you look at New York State, we have a lower percentage of deaths in nursing homes than in other states. One third of all deaths in this country are in nursing homes. New York, we’re … about 28 percent, but we’re below the national average in number of deaths in nursing homes, but who cares – 33, 28, died in a hospital, died in a nursing home – they died. ”(The percentage of deaths in nursing homes appears to be 30%, not 28%, as Cuomo said.) The governor also accused former Trump adviser Michael Caputo of drawing national attention to coronavirus in homes of elderly people in New York and use it as “political football.” “Playing politics the way they did it: that was cruel,” said Cuomo, referring to the Trump administration. “Because if you lost someone in a home rest, so it put a thought in his head: ‘Well, maybe it didn’t have to be. father died unnecessarily. ‘And that was cruel to do, because it was not true. “