National Review
Cuomo Won’t Apologize for Nursing-Home Miscount, Says ‘Who Cares’ Where Deaths Recorded
New York governor Andrew Cuomo stated the problem of coronavirus deaths in state nursing houses had grow to be a “political football,” in his first public feedback after Attorney General Letitia James discovered that his administration had drastically undercounted nursing-home deaths. The state well being division in April 2020 altered the way in which it reported coronavirus deaths amongst nursing home residents. Residents who died of COVID-19 within the amenities themselves have been listed as nursing home deaths, whereas residents who died after being transported to a hospital weren’t included in that tally. The change in reporting artificially lowered the true loss of life toll. Health Commissioner Howard Zucker admitted on Thursday night time that 3,829 nursing home residents have died of COVID-19 in a hospital for the reason that begin of the pandemic, bringing the entire nursing home loss of life toll from 8,914 to 12,743, a bounce of 43 p.c. “Look, whether a person died in a hospital or died in a nursing home, people died.” Cuomo instructed reporters on Friday. My father “was in a hospital, got transferred to a nursing home. My father died. My father was in a nursing home, got transferred to a hospital. My father died. People died.” Cuomo added, “If you look at New York State, we have a lower percentage of deaths in nursing homes than other states. A third of all deaths in this nation are from nursing homes. New York State, 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 proportion of nursing home deaths seems to be 30 p.c, not 28 p.c as Cuomo asserted.) The governor additionally accused former Trump adviser Michael Caputo for bringing nationwide consideration to coronavirus in New York’s nursing houses and utilizing it as a “political football.” “To play politics with it the way they did: that was mean,” Cuomo stated referring to the Trump administration. “Because if you lost someone in a nursing home, then it put a thought in your head, ‘Well maybe it didn’t have to be. Maybe my father died unnecessarily.’ And that was just cruel to do, because it wasn’t true.”