Senior group blasts Sen.Thomas' laughing hyena post on nursing home deaths
A group formed to demand accountability from Gov. Andrew Cuomo for New York's steep number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes joined with Republican Hempstead Councilman Dennis Dunne Wednesday to urge that that State Sen Kevin Thomas (D-Levittown) step down from the Senate Committee on aging -- and apologize.
Thomas had posted a "gif" of what looks like a laughing hyena in response to a tweet from Candice Giove, the Republican senate spokeswoman, who complained about the lack of subpoenas for top state health officials during a senate hearing on New York's nursing home deaths.
"How does Sen. Kevin Thomas tweet something as disgusting and depraved as this?" asked Jennifer Harrison, a member of Voices for Seniors, at a news conference outside Thomas' Garden City district office. "How does he laugh in our faces while we are fighting for justice and demanding answers and trying to prevent further loss of life for people sitting in nursing homes right now."
Vivian Zayas, who lost her grandmother to coronavirus in a nursing home, said she wanted an apology from Thomas. "He doesn't realize he is going to be a senior at some point."
Dawn Best, who said her mother "was one of thousands of nursing home fatalities," complained, "Kevin Thomas couldn't care less about our seniors. He proved it by laughing at their deaths."
Dunne added, "This is not what any respectful person would do. This is God-awful."
Thomas, a freshman senator, is up for re-election this November. He is being challenged by Dunne.
Thomas did not respond to a request for comment.
New York reports about 6,600 nursing home-related deaths -- one of the highest counts of any state in the nation. Some independent investigators say the number could be closer to 11,000 because New York, unlike other states, does not include in its tally the thousands of nursing home patients who were transferred to a hospital before they died from the coronavirus.
The numbers soared after Cuomo, through his health department, issued a directive March 25 that ordered nursing homes to take discharged hospital patients, whether or not they had the coronavirus. He withdrew the directive in May and deleted it from state websites.
Democrat Cuomo has blamed everybody and everything but his administration for the high numbers, which he has consistently tried to downplay by comparing percentages of nursing home deaths in New York to percentages in low death states, such as West Virginia. Using percentages instead of actual numbers is often a way to mislead with statistics.
For example, New York is reported to have had nearly 32,700 deaths from the coronavirus. West Virginia has had 319 deaths. No matter what the percentage of deaths in West Virginia occurred in nursing homes, there is no comparison.
Dunne said senators, including Thomas, "should be focused on
getting to the bottom of what really happened and preventing a tragedy like this from ever happening again.”
Here is the twitter link.
https://twitter.com/
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| Voices for Seniors and Dennis Dunne at news conference |
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