By now most people know that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is responsible for far more nursing home patient deaths than previously recognized according to a claim made by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The report, issued while the state prosecutor’s office continues to investigate nursing homes’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, indicated that some facilities underreported deaths to the state health department. It also noted that the health department has not counted the deaths of nursing home residents who were transferred to and died in hospitals, contributing to a drastic underrepresentation of the nursing home death toll.
According to the report, the Department of Health’s numbers for nursing home COVID-19 deaths – 6,423 from March through the beginning of August, based on records from 619 nursing homes – could be as much as 50% lower than the reality.
“As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,” New York State Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
Because of this bombshell new claim New York Governor Andrew Cuomo experienced something he was not used to experiencing. Being attacked by a CNN host.
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In response to Cuomo’s claim that “If you look at how many people died in New York nursing homes, New York is number 46 out of 50 states in the percentage of deaths in nursing homes” CNN host Breanna Keilar went ballistic.
“But that ranking was skewed,” Keilar started. “New York was leaving out casualties that many other states were counting. In its nursing home death toll, New York only counted Covid deaths that occurred inside of nursing homes.”
“The Attorney General’s report found that the overall number of deaths did not change. But it explains that, quote, ‘Preliminary data analysis obtained from the office of the attorney general inquiries to a portion of nursing homes during the pandemic suggest that many residents died from Covid-19 in hospitals after being transferred from their nursing homes.”
“And a larger number of nursing home residents died from Covid-19 than public Department of Health data reflected.’ In its nursing home death count, the New York Department of Health was not counting the residents who had contracted the virus in a nursing home but were moved to a hospital for treatment only to die there.”
“The AG also found that some nursing homes did not report Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes to the Department of Health. In fact, one facility alone, according to the AG, underreported by as many as 29 deaths. New York State health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, denied that there was an undercount in the overall death total, saying it was clear their numbers were reported based on place of death,” Keilar added.
While not normally a fan of any CNN host on this Keilar is right on target because according to the New York state attorney general’s report, the Department of Health’s numbers for nursing home COVID-19 deaths – 6,423 from March through the beginning of August, based on records from 619 nursing homes – could be as much as 50% lower than the reality, Reuters reports.
“As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,” New York State Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
Cuomo’s administration came under fire in particular for guidance it issued on March 25, saying nursing homes should not deny entry to patients with COVID-19 or those presumed to be infected.
That measure, which was aligned with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was rescinded through an executive order in May, but the attorney general’s report found that it “may have led to an increased risk of fatalities in some facilities” where the disease spread like wildfire.
The attorney general’s report also found that “nursing homes’ lack of compliance with infection control protocols put residents at increased risk of harm,” as in cases where COVID-19 positive residents were not sufficiently isolated to curb viral spread.
The large discrepancies in nursing home fatality data became apparent when the prosecutor’s office investigated a sampling of 62 nursing homes and found more fatalities than had been reported to the Department of Health, according to the report.
In one case, the report said, “a facility reported five confirmed and six presumed COVID-19 deaths at the facility as of Aug. 3 to [Department of Health]. However, the facility reported to OAG a total of 27 COVID-19 deaths at the facility and 13 hospital deaths – a discrepancy of 29 deaths.”
The report said the attorney general’s office was investigating the inconsistencies that “cannot reasonably be accounted for by error or the difference in the question posed.”
It looks like rising Democratic Party star and media darling Andrew Cuomo just might be in BIG political trouble as a lot of his constituents are going to be rightly upset by this.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Article Source : thefederalistpapers.org
