In February, New York’s nursing homes faced accusations from the state attorney general of underreporting coronavirus deaths. Shortly following this, the state put out a new report with updated figures. Over 6,000 additional deaths in nursing homes were reported, increasing the total number of New Yorkers who died in nursing homes from the coronavirus to over 15,000. This is 50% higher than the original toll.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo blamed this discrepancy in data on mistakes made due to being “busy” with handling the pandemic. Governor Cuomo was the recipient of the International Emmy Founder’s award for his daily press briefings during the beginning of quarantine. Cuomo has since put his efforts towards clearing his name, going after New York Assemblyman Ron Kim in a recent news call. Kim has been critical of Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes from early on.
The lack of a sincere apology from Cuomo is unsettling. But the denial of wrongdoing is inexcusable. Cuomo stated that the uncounted nursing home deaths’ contribution to percentages should not be of concern because New York’s death rate is low in comparison to other states. He said, “died in a hospital, died in a nursing home? They died.” Despite Cuomo’s insensitive assertion, keeping track of nursing home deaths is vastly important when dealing with a virus that disproportionately targets the elderly.
The initial numbers of recorded deaths could have been lowered to deflect blame falling on Cuomo for his mishandling of New York nursing homes. His policy of moving patients who were hospitalized for the coronavirus back into nursing homes resulted in more than 9,000 recovering COVID-19 patients being returned to said homes.
The state health department supported this measure, ensuring that patients who tested positive for the virus could not be turned away from nursing homes. This policy has been criticized by those who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 outbreaks within these facilities.
New York’s nursing home death toll has been under scrutiny since August. Both the federal Department of Justice and New York’s state legislature put forward requests for the data. Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, admitted to withholding data out of fear of an investigation from the Trump White House. “Basically, we froze,” she said when asked about the request from the Department of Justice. This is a gratuitous excuse for withholding death-related data in the midst of a pandemic.
Last year, Cuomo was granted expanded powers to handle the pandemic. These powers have allowed Cuomo increased funding and greater power to issue directives. Now, the possibility of stripping these privileges from him has been floated by both Republican and Democratic New York legislators. Many have condemned the governor for his betrayal of the people of New York. Recently surfaced plans to write a memoir about his “leadership lessons” now seem laughable.
In a recent statement, Cuomo said, “All the deaths in the nursing homes and in the hospitals were always fully, publicly and accurately reported. The numbers were numbers. Always.” He admitted to a delay in the reporting but has denied any misconduct. This is willfully misleading, and Cuomo aims to make it seem as if statistics are useful even when inaccurate. He prefers to maintain his public image over taking responsibility for his lies. The governor refers to the incident as a “void” in the facts rather than what it really was: a blatant coverup.
Governor Cuomo, who was once revered as a level-headed leader with the utmost respect for facts, has revealed a greater interest in popularity than transparency. His policies cost the lives of thousands of elderly and at-risk New Yorkers. His lack of humility robbed their family members of the apology they deserved.
