NYS HLTH COMM ZUCKER HITS BACK AT CRITICS OVER COVID-19 NURSING HOME DEATH DATA CONTROVERSY
At the center of Governor Cuomo’s alleged mismanagement of COVID-19 in nursing homes, his critics charge, was a March 25 executive order to send COVID-19 patients into nursing homes — which led to several outbreaks inside the facilities, where residents are particularly vulnerable due to their age.
Joining Cuomo’s Friday press conference, however, New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker defended the order, saying it was the right decision at the time.
“You can only review the decision with the facts that you had at the time. With the facts that we had at that moment in time, it was the correct decision from a public health point of view,” Zucker said.
In an effort to free up hospital beds and flatten the curve “to protect the hospital system as a whole,” the state health guidance was designed to “send people home if they didn’t need to be in the hospital,” Zucker said — which led officials at the time to send COVID-positive patients back to nursing homes.
Additionally, the commissioner added, studies have shown that many of the COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes were caused by asymptomatic staff members.
“98 percent of the nursing homes that accepted a hospital patient, already had COVID in that facility,” Zucker said. “132 nursing homes facilities that never took a COVID admission from a hospital still had COVID fatalities.”
Cuomo also argued that the “rate of COVID deaths in nursing homes was the same before the March 25 memo, as it was after” — and other states which did not have similar policies still had similar rates of infection in nursing homes.
Still, even with Zucker’s defense of the state’s actions, many politicos have trained their outrage at Cuomo’s alleged lack of transparency around the number of nursing home deaths.
One of the governor’s predecessors, former Governor George Pataki, called Cuomo’s actions a “cover-up” and “one of the worst things I have seen in state government,” during an interview on AM 570 WMCA radio.
REOPENING FOR VISITS
Over the next several weeks, the debate over both Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes, and the subsequent reporting, will surely heat up even further — with multiple investigations, legislative hearings, and a bipartisan push to limit Cuomo’s authority.
And yet, amid the controversy and in between his staunch efforts at defense, Cuomo also announced on Friday that long term care facilities can reopen for visitations — allowing many families to see their elderly loved ones for the first time in nearly a year.
“Reopening visitation — this is going to be a very big deal for a lot of New Yorkers,” the governor said.
The move comes nearly two months after the COVID-19 vaccines began rolling out to nursing home residents and the support staff, and as nearly three-fourths of all residents and staffers have been inoculated.
“100 percent of nursing home residents and staff have been offered the vaccine, and 73 percent of them have been vaccinated,” Cuomo said. “That is the largest ‘sub-group,’ if you will.”
This story first appeared on AMNY.com.