NASSAU COUNTY CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC.

"The government is us, we are the government, you and I." Teddy Roosevelt

 

Home Page

Op/Ed Page  


February 14, 2021

Cuomo Withheld Nursing Home Data

Time for action by Legislature

New York Attorney General Letitia James released her report on the investigation into the Governor's Covid 19 nursing home policy. The report found that the Governor actually under reported Covid deaths from nursing homes by as much as fifty percent. The report went on the list multiple areas of concern such failure to follow establish infectious disease protocols, insufficient personal protective equipment, understaffing, insufficient Covid 19 testing for residents and staff, and the policy of admitting positive Covid 19 may have put patients in harm. 

The entire episode involving nursing homes points to a grossly incompetent Covid policy. As stated by many, the Governor has access to many federal assets and help from not-for-profits. The former Trump administration sent a thousand bed hospital ship, set up a temporary field hospital at the Jacob Javits Center that contained almost three thousand beds and Samaritan's Purse provided a sixty eight bed field hospital in Central park. All of these assets were not utilized and elderly patients were sent to their deaths at nursing homes.

The Governor in an ultimate act of hubris, is set to release a book about his successful leadership during the Covid crisis, "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic. Failing to protect the most vulnerable of society and then covering up his public policy failure is not the definition of a successful leader. It is the definition of a crass political leader who cares more about himself than anything else. Its time for the legislature to actually do their job and hold hearings. New York residents need answers and now.