Cuomo's "mostly false" nursing home blame game

"New York's Nursing Home Policy was not fully in line with the CDC"

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo today praised state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker for his work during the Covid-19 pandemic, saying "He's done exquisitively well" --  even though New York has the highest nursing home death toll in the nation.

Yesterday, Cuomo again blamed federal CDC guidelines for New York's estimated 6,200 confirmed and presumed deaths in nursing homes and aged care facilities.


"Start with the fact it was guidance from Mr. Trump," Cuomo declared when a reporter pressed him on his responsibility the deaths.

But Cuomo's repetitive finger-pointing at the CDC has been labeled "mostly false" by the fact-checking website Politifact.

After reviewing the CDC guidelines and then looking at how New York handled its nursing home patients compared to other states, Politifact concluded, "New York's nursing home policy was not fully in line with the CDC"

You can read its full findings here: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jun/13/andrew-cuomo/new-yorks-nursing-home-policy-was-not-line-cdc/


Critics say the main reason for New York's high nursing home death rate is a March 25 directive by Zucker and the Cuomo administration that ordered nursing homes to take coronavirus patients discharged from hospitals, without checking to see if they were still contagious. Cuomo rescinded the order last month after nursing home deaths soared.


Democrat Cuomo yesterday also blamed politics for the nursing home complaints.


"I understand the politics on the issue. I understand what the Republicans say on the issue. It's not a coincidence that this is primarily an argument put forth by Republicans," he said.

Indeed, New York State Assemb. Mike LiPetri (R-South Farmingdale), who is running a primary for the Republican nomination to replace Congressman Peter King,  was the first to call in April for Zucker to be fired because of the March 25 directive.

But Politifact, the fact-checking arm of the Poynter Institute of Media Studies, is generally considered non-biased. If it leans politically, it leans slightly to the left, not to the right.

In addition, other states followed the same CDC guidelines but didn't see the same number of deaths. New York was alone in how it interpreted the CDC guidelines.


According to ProPublica, a news organization that leans more left than right, reports, "New York was the only state in the nation that barred testing of those being placed or returning to nursing homes."

You can read the entire story here: https://www.propublica.org/article/fire-through-ry-grass-andrew-cuomo-saw-covid-19-threat-to-nursing-homes-then-he-risked-adding-to-it

Cuomo yesterday cited the same statistic that he has used before: New York ranks 35th in number of nursing home deaths as a percentage of total coronavirus deaths.

But he is using percentages to cover the actual numbers: New York's 30,767 coronavirus deaths is more than twice the number of total deaths of any other state in the nation. New Jersey is second with 12,800 deaths, according to the New York Times coronavirus data.

Although coronavirus infections are rising in other states, they still are dwarfed by New York's numbers: Texas has 2,105 deaths; Florida reports 3,060 deaths and Arizona has 1,284.

The facts are, as Cuomo likes to say, that New York's nursing home deaths outstrip many states'

total death counts.