NY pols mark 2 years after ‘killer’ Cuomo nursing home order, demand probe
Lawmakers and advocates commemorated the more than 15,000 nursing home deaths in New York amid the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, as they pitched a measure to get to the bottom of the missteps made under disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo that caused the fatalities in elder-care facilities.
During a press conference in Albany, an ideologically diverse coalition rallied behind a bill to designate March 25 as “We Care Remembrance Day,” and another to create a body tasked with studying the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic response on deaths in nursing homes.
Friday marks exactly two years since the state Department of Health under then-commissioner Howard Zucker implemented a directive that required nursing homes to readmit residents who tested positive for the coronavirus.
“It wasn’t just an executive order — it was a declaration of eldercide in the state of New York,” charged Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), a fierce Cuomo critic whose uncle died in April 2020 of COVID-19 in a Flushing nursing home.
“This executive order was one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the state of New York,” Kim said.
The infamous state Department of Health order, rescinded under public pressure on May 10, 2020, forced sickened seniors into facilities housing those most vulnerable to COVID-19 and increased the death toll among residents of them, according to a New York State Bar Association report.
It led to a spike of “several hundred and possibly more than 1,000” fatalities in state-regulated nursing homes, according to a watchdog report released in February 2021.
In April 2020, Cuomo claimed he was unaware of the directive, which stated, “No resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.”
In response, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers are backing legislation (S. 2067/A. 3162) that would establish “a temporary state commission to study and investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic response on deaths in nursing homes.”
State Sen. Sue Serino, a cosponsor of the bill, lamented the lack of progress on getting to the bottom of what led to the state government’s botching of the pandemic response on nursing homes.
“While we have a new governor and a new health commissioner, we still do not have answers, and we still don’t have any plan to get them,” Serino (R-Poughkeepsie) said.
Vivian Zayas — founder of the Voices for Seniors whose mom, Ana Martinez, died of the coronavirus in a Long Island nursing home — said the legislation is necessary to “show that we care” about loved ones who succumbed to the disease and ensure that elderly New Yorkers in nursing homes are “treated with dignity and love.”
“Unfortunately, we’re not there yet,” she said, adding that the bill mandating the investigation into COVID-19 in nursing homes “is the best way to honor our loved ones, the best remembrance now and forever.”
Zayas’ sister, Alexa Rivera, said while fighting back tears, “We hope that others will join in support of these bills that we’re pushing for, because it’s very important.”
“We just hope that you guys do the right thing,” she added.
The press conference came a week after the release of a scathing state comptroller audit that revealed the state Health Department intentionally “misled the public” about the number of nursing home deaths from COVID-19 to help burnish Cuomo. In a 58-page report, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s auditors found that DOH officials undercounted the death toll by at least 4,100 residents and at times by more than 50 percent.
“The state drastically undercounted the number of nursing home deaths. The question that remains today is why,” said Serino at the Wednesday morning news conference.
“We certainly think we know why, but until an independent investigation is completed, lawmakers and others can bury their hands in the sand in hopes that moving forward means that we will forget,” she explained. “Mark my words: we will never forget.”
The comptroller’s findings confirmed the state Assembly’s impeachment probe, released in November, which revealed Cuomo and his top aides hid nursing home data from the public and that the scandal-scarred former governor was aware as early as March 2020 that nursing home deaths were being undercounted.
While lawmakers and families of nursing home residents have ripped Cuomo for his handling of nursing homes, they are not satisfied with the new administration’s decisions the matter either.
In January, family members who lost loved ones in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic slammed Gov. Kathy Hochul — who took over in August following Cuomo’s resignation amid a flurry of scandals — for not including a $4 billion, 9/11-style Coronavirus Nursing Home Victims Compensation Fund in her $216.3 billion state budget.
And in February, state Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett told lawmakers she won’t “unravel what had happened in the nursing homes under the previous commissioner” — prompting scathing rebukes from New York Republican elected officials.
Senator Jim Tedisco (R-Schenectady) — another backer of the measure to create an investigative commission on handling of the coronavirus in nursing homes — declared Wednesday, “We are not going to leave our loved ones behind,” and again Bassett for saying she won’t spend time investigating decisions made under Zucker and Cuomo.
“We will never go forward in the way we should unless we have a full investigation,” he said. ”
“When Gov. Hochul took office, she promised it would be a new era for New York. Unfortunately, with no progress on an independent investigation … it seems we’re only getting more of the same — the same lip service,” said Serino.
“But it is never too late to do the right thing, and today, we are all here urging Gov. Hochul and our colleagues in the legislature to take up this cause and make a real difference for the 15,000-plus New York families.”
