Edited by: TJVNews.com

Under fire over his management of the coronavirus’ lethal path through New York’s nursing homes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday the state didn’t cover up deaths but should have moved faster to release some information sought by lawmakers, the public and the press, as was reported by AP.

“All the deaths in the nursing homes and hospitals were always fully, publicly and accurately reported,” the Democratic governor said, weeks after the state was forced to acknowledge that its count of nursing home deaths excluded thousands of residents who perished after being taken to hospitals. He explained the matter Monday as a difference of “categorization,” with the state counting where deaths occurred and others seeking total deaths of nursing home residents, regardless of the location.

“We should have done a better job of providing as much information as we could as quickly as we could,” he said at a virtual news conference. “No excuses: I accept responsibility for that.”

Cuomo, who has seen his image as a pandemic-taming leader dented by a series of disclosures involving nursing homes in recent weeks, said he would propose reforms involving nursing homes and hospitals in the upcoming state budget, without giving details, according to the AP report.

But he continued to blame a “toxic political environment,” and “disinformation” for much of the complaints surrounding his administration’s handling of the issue.

The governor’s comments didn’t satisfy state Assemblyman Ron Kim, a Democrat and outspoken critic of the administration’s approach to nursing homes during the pandemic. Kim’s uncle died of a presumed case of COVID-19 in a New York nursing home in April.

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” Kim stated that Cuomo is lying about notifying the state legislature about the Department of Justice’s investigation into New York’s nursing homes, and stated that there needs to be an investigation into the nursing homes by either an independent commission, the state’s attorney general, or the federal government “as soon as possible.”

Kim said, “It took us almost two months before the governor decided to change. In fact, a month later, at a press conference, he said he didn’t know about it. He lied. Just like he’s lying right now to today’s press conference about sending notices to the Assembly and Senate that we knew about the Department of Justice investigation. We were not informed, we were not told there was an investigation in August.”

He later added, “If there’s nothing to hide, why didn’t they just hand over the information when we asked for it? The information was available. They could have just disclosed it. But they chose not to. … I do believe we need a thorough investigation, whether that be an independent commission or the attorney general or the federal government. And that needs to happen as soon as possible.”

The children of a woman who died in a New York nursing home in spring 2020 are demanding justice for their mother as well. “During an appearance on ‘Fox & Friends,’ 93-year-old Agnes Minisalle’s three children said that the nursing home deaths and subsequent alleged cover-up should not be partisan issues,” Fox News reported Monday.

“You pat yourself on the back and tell everyone how good you’re doing, at the same time you’re lying about the lives that are being lost,” Ted Minisalle stated, adding, “It’s just terrible, absolutely terrible.”

Prior to the lockdowns in March, the siblings ate dinner with their mom, walked her to a nearby chapel, and took her to bed nearly every evening.

“Two weeks after his mother died, Ted Minisalle lost his father-in-law to COVID-19 in the very same nursing home. The family said that if the DOJ finds wrongdoing by Cuomo in their investigation he needs to admit what he did and be brought to justice,” the Fox report continued.

They also called on the state to allow families back into nursing homes as part of their loved ones’ essential care.

During an interview Saturday on Fox & Friends, Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) said the Biden DOJ should investigate Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.

“President Biden, you said you would use your Justice Department in an honorable way, objective way. We’re going to make sure the Justice Department does just that,” he stated.

“And we’re going to use those tools of justice to make sure those 15,000 souls that died are going to be heard from and justice will be done,” Reed concluded.

AP reported that the head of a major association of New York nursing homes said the state erred by focusing too much on hospitals early in the pandemic and leaving nursing homes “scrambling to safeguard their residents and staff.”

“Policymakers and legislators must stop the blame game” and work more closely with nursing homes, said Stephen Hanse, CEO of the New York State Health Facilities Association and New York State Center for Assisted Living.

State lawmakers have been calling for investigations, stripping Cuomo of his emergency powers and even his resignation after new details emerged this week about why certain nursing home data wasn’t disclosed for months, despite requests from lawmakers and others.

First, a report late last month from Democratic state Attorney General Letitia James examined the administration’s failure to tally nursing home residents’ deaths at hospitals. The state then acknowledged the total number of long-term care residents’ deaths is nearly 15,000, up from the 8,500 previously disclosed, as was reported by AP.

Next, in reply to a Freedom of Information request from the Associated Press, the state Health Department released records this week showing that more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York were released from hospitals into nursing homes in the pandemic’s early months, according to the AP report — over 40% higher than the state had said previously, because it wasn’t counting residents who returned from hospitals to homes where they already had lived.

Cuomo and his administration have maintained that the hospital patients didn’t drive nursing home outbreaks, saying the patients likely weren’t contagious anymore and virtually all the homes that admitted them had cases already. Still, the governor stopped allowing such admissions in May.

Late this week, it emerged that top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa had told Democratic lawmakers that the tally of nursing home residents’ deaths at hospitals — data that legislators had sought since August — was delayed because officials worried that the information was “going to be used against us” by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, as was reported by AP.

Echoing an explanation DeRosa gave Friday, Cuomo said the state was slow to respond to the lawmakers because officials prioritized dealing with requests from the Justice Department and were busy dealing with the work of the pandemic: “It’s not like people were in the South of France,” he said.

“When we didn’t provide information, it allowed press, people, cynics, politicians, to fill the void,” he said, and “it created confusion and cynicism and pain for the families.”

“The truth is: Everybody did everything they could.”

But nursing home residents’ advocate Richard Mollot said the state has fallen short for years on overseeing nursing home care, according to the AP report.

“The governor has the power to take the steps necessary to ensure that nursing homes dedicate the resources needed to ensure safety,” said Mollot, the executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition. “Every day of delay is another day of unnecessary suffering.”

State lawmakers called for investigations, stripping Cuomo of his emergency powers and even his resignation after new details emerged this week about why certain nursing home data was kept under wraps for months, despite requests from lawmakers and others.

On Sunday, Democratic NY Representative Antonio Delgado joined the growing calls to probe the shocking admission by DeRosa that the Cuomo administration hid data on coronavirus deaths in nursing homes.

Delgado, the 44-year old Democratic Rep. for the 19th congressional district, which includes Hudson Valley and Catskills regions, joined the chorus. “Politics should never come before people’s lives,” Delgado tweeted. “The Secretary to the Governor’s remarks are beyond troubling and warrant a full investigation.”

“Thousands of New Yorkers lost family in nursing homes to COVID-19, a pain made worse by the inability to comfort their loved ones in their final hours,” said Delgado in another tweet. “They deserve answers and accountability.”

“This bombshell admission of a coverup and the remarks by the Secretary to the Governor indicating intent to obstruct any federal investigation is a stunning and criminal abuse of power,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) wrote in a statement.

AP reported that the new salvos from Republicans and Cuomo’s fellow Democrats mark a stark turnaround from the early days of the pandemic, when Cuomo’s daily briefings helped cement a national reputation for leadership. The briefings, in which he promised to deliver “just the facts,” won him an International Emmy and helped lead to his book, “American Crisis.”

“He stepped in it, more than a little bit. It would be bad enough if this had come out and he had not been publicly sort of celebrating, and been celebrated, for his handling of the pandemic,” said Jeanne Zaino, political science professor at Iona College. “But putting that aside, it doesn’t get more serious than this. You’re talking about the deaths of 15,000 people.”

The Cuomo administration for months dramatically underreported the statewide number of COVID-19 deaths among long-term care residents. It is now nearly 15,000, up from the 8,500 previously disclosed.

AP reported that the new toll amounts to about one-seventh of the roughly 90,000 people living in nursing homes as of 2019 in New York, which has among the most care home residents in the nation.

Cuomo has pointed to a small but growing body of research suggesting unchecked community spread is the biggest factor in nursing home outbreaks, and he has said inadequate federal government help with travel restrictions, testing and protective gear left New York City and its suburbs particularly vulnerable.

He has dismissed criticism as political and noted that the thousands of nursing home residents’ deaths in hospitals were always counted in the state’s overall tally.

“Died in a hospital, died in a nursing home — they died,” he said Jan. 29.

The uproar might not have the same impact on the third-term Democrat as it would if he were facing reelection for the first time this year, Zaino said. But it could make him less likely to be tapped for a post in the Biden administration.

And Cuomo — who says he will run again in 2022 — is now facing criticism that is increasingly coming from members of his own party, as was reported by AP.

“The governor’s lack of transparency and stonewalling regarding his administration’s nursing home actions is unacceptable,” said state Sen. John Mannion, one of 14 Democratic state senators who said Friday that Cuomo’s expanded emergency powers should be repealed as soon as possible.

Nursing home residents’ advocates and relatives have questioned whether the virus’s spread in nursing homes was fueled by a March 25 state directive that barred the facilities from refusing people just because they had COVID-19. The directive was intended to free up space in rapidly filling hospitals.

Debra Diehl, 62, who lost her 85-year-old father, Reeves Hupman, to presumptive COVID-19 in May at a nursing home outside Albany, wants to know why Cuomo and the state didn’t do more to separate residents who may have had the virus, perhaps by putting them in field hospitals.

“They had people coming up, sent from downstate hospitals up here,” Diehl said. “It just seemed like Typhoid Marys, just spreading it further. He did not know what he was doing, or he did not care.”

In reply to a Freedom of Information request from the AP in May, the state Health Department released records this week showing that more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York were released from hospitals into nursing homes from March 25 to May 10, when Cuomo undid the directive.

The state issued a report insisting the patients didn’t drive the virus’s transmission in nursing homes, though it didn’t rule out whether the directive played any role.

AP reported that Cuomo has said the facilities had a responsibility to accept only patients they could care for. State health inspectors have uncovered infection control violations at dozens of nursing homes amid the pandemic and levied at least $1 million in fines.

Still, DeRosa has estimated that New York nursing home residents represent 40% of the lives lost this winter. New York has reported over 10,000 deaths since Dec. 1.

The disclosure of DeRosa’s comments this week in a conference call with Democratic lawmakers essentially brought months of complaints to a boiling point.

“It gave the impression of them trying to whitewash the information,” said Sen. Rachel May, one of the 14 Democrats calling for rescinding Cuomo’s emergency powers.

Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt said Cuomo “needs to demand the immediate resignation of anyone involved in this cover-up, and if he was aware, he must be removed from office,” as was reported by AP.

The criticism could resonate because it fits with a common complaint that for all of his ability, Cuomo’s controlling nature can undercut his effectiveness.

Cuomo has dismissed that idea, writing in his book: “You show me a person who is not controlling, and I’ll show you a person who is probably not highly successful.”

To Fordham University political scientist Christina Greer, the recent disclosures “call into question: Can we trust news coming out of the governor’s office? Not just out of nursing homes, but can we trust it about schools, can we trust it about prisons, can we trust it about other communities?

”It’s definitely cast a bad shadow on the administration,” she said.

             (AP & Combined Sources)