Former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is scheduled to testify before Congress about his 2020 decision to allow nursing homes and adult care facilities to accept patients from hospitals who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid a sexual harassment scandal, issued an order in March 2020 prohibiting nursing homes from denying residents solely because they have been diagnosed with COVID-19. The Daily Caller News Foundation first reported in May 2020 that the Cuomo administration intentionally undercounted coronavirus deaths in nursing homes by changing the classification system. Lawmakers on the special subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic will have the opportunity to ask Mr. Cuomo questions about the matter on June 11.
Republican Ohio Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who chairs the coronavirus subcommittee, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on his TV show Friday that Governor Cuomo announced on June 11 that his elected subcommittee on the pandemic I plan to attend the meeting,” he said. “This will be the transcript of the interview at 10am.”
“We’re trying to learn why he did this,” Wenstrup added. “As a doctor who has treated infectious diseases, it goes against all medical common sense to put highly contagious patients in the most vulnerable position.” (Related: Gov. Cuomo calls criticism of New York nursing home fatality “political” amid a flurry of damaging reports)
Andrew Cuomo bluntly says, “Yes, if I was still governor, I ‘probably’ would have chosen the Biden primary.”https://t.co/1g8EbpDCn8
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 10, 2023
In March 2020, Mr. Cuomo ordered “No resident will be denied re-admission or admission.” [nursing home] Based only on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. ” Cuomo reversed his course and reversed the policy in May 2020 amid mounting criticism.
The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) secretly changed the way it counts and categorizes coronavirus deaths in nursing homes in early May 2020, effectively making nursing home facilities less likely to live in nursing homes, as previously reported by the DCNF. Only deaths that occurred within the country were counted. Under the adjusted counting system, for example, nursing home residents who contracted the coronavirus and died in hospitals were not counted as nursing home deaths.
In 2021, Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James concluded that the NYSDOH had undercounted coronavirus deaths in nursing homes by nearly 50% thanks to changes in how the state classified deaths. Ta. New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, also a Democrat, found in his 2022 audit that the agency undercounted at least 4,100 deaths from April 2020 to February 2021.
The coronavirus subcommittee began efforts to reach out to Mr. Cuomo about nine months ago. according to Weinstrup told CNN that Tapper and his colleagues “ignored many of our requests, resulting in delays.” Cuomo did not finalize a date to testify before the coronavirus subcommittee until Wednesday, the coronavirus subcommittee told CNN.
But Cuomo press secretary Rich Azzopardi offered a different assessment.
“There is no news here, we agreed to do so months ago. This is pure politics and the simple fact is that this issue is a matter of concern for the Department of Justice under President Trump and the Biden administration, as well as has been considered three times by Congress and the Manhattan District Attorney, and it turns out there is no ‘there’ there,” Azzopardi told DCNF. Email. “The actual review will focus on the other 10 states that have similar red and blue policies.”
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