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Around the same time, he was celebrating the state’s initial success in controlling the virus’s spread after a devastating spring during which tens of thousands of people died. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been looking into whether Mr. Cuomo and his aides provided false data on resident deaths to the Justice Department, according to people with knowledge of the investigation. For months, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has defended himself against criticism of his administration’s handling of the coronavirus in nursing homes. The audit also stated “persistent underinvestment” in public health over the past decade may have hindered the DOH’s ability to prepare and respond to infectious disease outbreaks at the nursing homes. But Bill Hammond, the Empire Center’s senior fellow for health policy, said the information put out by the DOH Saturday was a small fraction of what it had requested.
Dr. Walid Michelen, chief medical officer for seven nonprofit nursing homes operated by the Archdiocese of New York, said Americans need to continue taking the pandemic seriously. Long said health care providers at Houston Methodist promote the booster “every chance we get.” But they don’t administer it to people hospitalized with COVID-19, who are generally told to wait three months after being infected to get it. Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas, said his hospital has also seen an increase in COVID-19 admissions over the last couple of weeks — and many of the patients are seniors with other health problems. Some are admitted for different illnesses and test positive for COVID-19 in the hospital.
Your County’s Risk
"FBI reportedly investigating Cuomo role in shielding donors from Covid liability". The Javits Center pictured on April 2, 2020, outfitted to care for patients with COVID-19. Throughout the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have highlighted just how important masks and other forms of personal protective equipment are. With regard to the harassment allegations, Mr. Cuomo has apologized for acting “in a way that made people feel uncomfortable,” but he has also said he did so unintentionally and has insisted repeatedly that he will not resign. Mr. Kim said the governor had called him and had threatened to ruin his reputation unless he rescinded the remarks. At a subsequent news conference, Mr. Cuomo responded by denouncing Mr. Kim in scathing terms.
New York state’s government was set up with a division of power for this very purpose – with checks and balances. The downstate-driven, one-party-controlled State Legislature must do their jobs now before another life is lost or more facts are hidden from the public. OAG received a complaint from a resident’s son about a for-profit nursing home in New York City alleging his mother was not receiving proper care because of critically low staffing levels at the facility.
COVID-19 deaths in NY nursing homes were 50 percent higher than claimed: probe
One of Cuomo’s top aides admitted in February 2021 that the administration delayed the release of nursing home Covid-19 death data, wary of a US Justice Department preliminary inquiry. Cuomo, who was widely lauded in Democratic circles for his leadership in the early days of the pandemic, has since been under significant scrutiny over his administration’s guidance regarding Covid-19 and nursing homes. At the Boropark Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, an additional 41 people died in the hospital on top of 32 at the home. The Sheepshead Nursing & Rehabilitation Center had nine deaths in the home, and 50 outside of it. The total number of nursing home patients who died from COVID-19 is now 13,163 with nearly one-third dying in a hospital.
Representative Antonio Delgado from New York's 19th congressional district also called for an investigation into Cuomo, saying those who lost loved ones "deserve answers and accountability". Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York's 14th congressional district stated, “I support our state’s return to co-equal governance and stand with our local officials calling for a full investigation of the Cuomo administration’s handling of nursing homes during COVID-19." Then in January, Ms. James reported that the administration had undercounted virus-related deaths of nursing home residents by several thousand. Hours later, the Health Department added more than 3,800 such deaths to its tally. As politicians, health experts and federal investigators called for complete figures for the deaths of nursing home residents, the Cuomo administration continued to delay the data’s release, saying more time was need to compile and verify it. Cuomo has insisted that it was up to the nursing homes to alert state health officials if they were not equipped to take care of infected residents.
Nursing Home Death Counts
At issue was a policy issued in March 2020 that effectively ordered nursing homes to take back residents who had been discharged from hospitals after being treated for Covid-19. The goal was to keep virus patients from overwhelming hospitals, a step other states also took. In April, The New York Times reported that Mr. Cuomo’s aides had gone to far greater lengths than previously known to obscure the death toll, repeatedly overruling state health officials over a span of at least five months. In January, New York’s attorney general said the administration had undercounted nursing home deaths by several thousand. Mr. Cuomo later acknowledged as much, blaming the lower figure on fears that the Trump administration would use the data as a political weapon.
Lawmakers from both parties called for complete data after the report’s release, with some suggesting the information was being withheld to improve the governor’s image. In August, the state health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, said the department was still auditing the data and could not release it. The suggestion that the actual death count had been covered up intensified criticism of Mr. Cuomo, including from his allies in state government. The scandal deepened after reports that the governor’s aides had altered the July report to hide the true figure. At the time, Mr. Cuomo and his aides dismissed the outcry as politically motivated, and in July, the State Health Department released a report that found the policy was not responsible for an increase. The report did, however, raise questions in some quarters about how the state was reporting deaths.
NYPost
Prior to the report released by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Andrew Cuomo had received the International Emmy Founders Award from the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his COVID-19 press briefings. On August 24, 2021, the Academy revoked his award, due to sexual harassment allegations, however, and not due to the nursing home scandal. In November 2021, a report by the New York State Assembly found that Cuomo's executive chamber had "substantially revised" the report to exclude deaths of nursing home residents at hospitals in order to boost Cuomo's reputation. The Health Department report revived questions about how New York was counting such deaths. At the time, the state’s tally only included residents who had died inside a nursing home; it excluded those who died at a hospital or other facility.
These alarming signs portend a difficult winter for seniors, which worries 81-year-old nursing home resident Bartley O'Hara, who said he is “vaccinated up to the eyeballs” and tracks coronavirus hospital trends as they "zoom up” for older adults, but remain flat for younger folks. For more than a century, the massive five-story red-brick building has stood on a narrow tree-lined residential street. Nothing about Cobble Hill Health Center, which serves older adults who are "chronically ill, or disabled, or debilitated," according to its website, suggests it would the nursing home in New York with the highest number of deaths presumably linked to the coronavirus epidemic.
The response to those requests, Cobble Hill says, was that the area's main hospitals were more overwhelmed and a higher priority for relief. The AG’s office, which began investigating alleged Covid-19-related neglect at nursing homes in early March, is conducting ongoing investigations into more than 20 facilities. The report from James, who until now has avoided such high-profile criticism of the Cuomo administration, creates new discord between the governor and one of the state’s most powerful elected officials.
The Nursing Home Abuse Center was founded to bring justice to those affected by nursing home and elder abuse. Our mission is to educate and empower victims of abuse and their families to take a stand against this unlawful mistreatment. We work to return dignity back to those who have been broken down by nursing home abuse and neglect. A family blamed this policy for the death of a Navy veteran who contracted COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 while staying at a New York nursing home. Though his family removed him from the nursing home, he soon passed away due to COVID-19 complications. Unfortunately, some nursing homes took steps that may have actually made the spread of COVID-19 worse due to PPE shortages.
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