Recently released data showing that New York may have underestimated the number of new coronavirus deaths in nursing homes by more than 50% has solidified previously reported concerns about the response to the Empire State pandemic in such facilities.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters at a news conference on Friday that “everyone did the best they could”.
A 76-page report released by Attorney General Letitia James’s office on Thursday found that New York State may have counted thousands of COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents – supporting the findings of an Associated Press investigation in the last year it focused on the fact that New York is one of the only states in the country that counts residents who died in nursing homes and not those who later died in hospitals.
The counting method allowed Cuomo to boast that his state had a lower percentage of deaths in nursing homes compared to other states.
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But such an under count would mean that the state’s current official count of 8,711 deaths in nursing homes for the virus is actually more than 13,000, propelling New York from sixth to the highest in the country.
“While we cannot bring back the individuals we have lost in this crisis, this report seeks to provide the transparency that the public deserves,” said Attorney General Letitia James in a statement.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said on Friday that the report describing the number of deaths as “underestimated” was “inaccurate”.
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“It’s not about pointing fingers or blaming, it’s that this has become political football, right?” Cuomo observed during the press conference. “Look, if a person died in a hospital or in a nursing home … people died. People died. … By the way, the same people are dying today.”
The AP analysis in August concluded that the state could be underestimating deaths by up to 65%, based on discrepancies between its totals and the numbers reported to federal regulators. This analysis was, like James’ report, based on just one piece of data, rather than a comprehensive view.
James’ investigators analyzed a sample of 62 of the state’s nearly 600 nursing homes. They reported 1,914 deaths of COVID-19 residents, while the state Department of Health recorded only 1,229 deaths in these same facilities. An unidentified facility, for example, had an official death toll of 11, but the attorney general’s investigation found that 40 had died.
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The report by James, a fellow Democratic official, undermined Cuomo’s frequent argument that criticism of his treatment of the virus in asylums was part of a political “blame game” and was revenge for thousands of families who believed in his loved ones were being omitted from the count to promote the governor’s image as a pandemic hero.
As noted by reports and Grabien Media founder Tom Elliott, for months, Cuomo shifted the blame on others – such as nursing home employees – or defended his administration on the grounds that the Empire State was doing better than others in protecting its most vulnerable.
MARCH – APRIL 2020
The first COVID-19 case reported in New York in early March 2020 and the state quickly grew to become a hotspot in the country.
On March 25, the Cuomo administration enacted a policy that sought to create more space in hospitals, freeing recovering patients with COVID-19 to nursing homes.
The AP investigation found that hospitals across the state released more than 4,500 recovering coronavirus patients to nursing homes under the guideline, which prohibited nursing homes from refusing to receive patients because they had or may have had COVID-19.
James’ report said these admissions “may have contributed to the increased risk of infection for nursing home residents and subsequent fatalities”, and noted that at least 4,000 residents of nursing homes with COVID-19 died after this guidance. But the report said the issue would require further studies to conclusively prove such a link.
MAY 2020
Cuomo’s office announced on May 10 that patients being transferred from a hospital to a New York nursing home must first test negative for COVID.
The governor’s office also said that from March 1 to May 1, more than 4,800 people in New York’s nursing homes died of COVID-19, accounting for approximately 25% of all deaths in New York.
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After a flurry of criticism about the March 25 directive, Cuomo was asked in mid-May whether he had a comment for families seeking accountability and felt like they had been disapproved.
He replied, “How can we get justice for these families? Who can we sue for these deaths? Nobody. Mother Nature, God, where did this virus come from? People are going to die because of this virus. That’s the truth.”
“Older people, vulnerable people, are going to die from this virus,” added Cuomo. “It will happen despite everything you do, with all of our progress as a society, we cannot keep everyone alive. The elderly are more vulnerable. That is a fact that will not change.”
The reporter said that some people felt that the negative test passed that month could have prevented deaths, to which Cuomo replied, “People rationalize death in different ways.”
He added: “I don’t think there is any logical reason to say that they would be alive today.”
JUNE 2020
Speaking to NBC’s “Meet the Press” program on June 28, Cuomo said he “suffered political pressure” and that people should not point a finger at New York because of the asylum response. He criticizes politics, rather than facts, according to a transcript of the interview.
“In New York, we are 46th in the country in terms of the percentage of deaths in nursing homes, compared to the total percentage,” he said, referring to data released by the New York Times. “It has been unfortunate in every state and we have to do more. We have to find out, but if they want to point the finger, not in New York. We are number 46.
He added that there were “45 other states to point the finger at first.”
JULY 2020
State officials announced earlier this month that New York hospitals have sent more than 6,300 recovering COVID-19 patients to nursing homes under the controversial political march in March.
Health officials said in their report that the widespread spread of the virus in the state’s nursing homes was driven by more than 20,000 infected domestic workers, many of whom continued to work without knowing they had the virus in March and April. Another 17,500 workers were infected by the beginning of June.
The state report also said that 80% of the state’s 310 nursing homes that received patients with COVID-19 already had cases before Cuomo issued his order.
But the report only looked at the number of residents who died in nursing homes and not in hospitals.
“Facts matter. And those are the facts,” Zucker told a news conference at the time.
The health commissioner said “there was no reason to blame anyone”.
“If you were to blame, I would blame the coronavirus,” said Zucker.
According to the Associated Press, scientists, health professionals and elected officials criticized the state’s report for flawed methodology and selective statistics that circumvented the real impact of the March 25 order. And some have accused the state of using the varnish from a scientific study to absolve the Democratic governor when he came to the same conclusion that he had been floating around for weeks – that unhealthy infected workers were primarily responsible for the outbreaks.
AUGUST 2020
In August, Cuomo resisted calls for an independent investigation into the treatment of COVID-related deaths in nursing homes.
“I would not conduct an investigation, be it political or not, everyone can make that decision for themselves,” he said during a news conference on August 10. “I think you would have to be blind to realize that you are not a politician. “
At the end of the month, the Justice Department sent letters to Cuomo and three other states seeking data on whether they violated federal law by ordering public health facilities to accept patients recovering from COVID-19 from hospitals.
Spokesmen for Cuomo, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy argued that the fact that all states are led by Democrats and the time for change – amid the Republican National Convention – speaks volumes about the political nature of the investigation.
OCTOBER 2020
In late October, the U.S. Department of Justice expanded its efforts to determine whether New York was underestimating COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents, requiring detailed data from hundreds of private facilities.
Cuomo’s spokesman told the AP that the moment when the Justice Department’s last request was a politically motivated “farce” and a “scandalous abuse of power”.
The Justice Department’s civil rights division letter asked the state to deliver a series of deaths to hospitals that its health department had been collecting since at least April, but were not released. It extends to more than 600 nursing homes a similar request that the DOJ made in August, which was targeted at just a few dozen public facilities.
Morgan Phillips, Brooke Singman and Fox News’ The Associated Press contributed to this report.