Misleading: Cuomo and Nursing Home Deaths

Misbar discovered that Cuomo is facing scrutiny regarding COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents. In a report issued January 28, 2021, New York’s Attorney General Letitia James found that a larger number of nursing home residents died from COVID-19 than the New York State Department of Health (DOH) published and the numbers may have been undercounted by as much as 50 percent. This report followed earlier accusations from political adversaries of the Governor. 

In the spring of 2020, New York was at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. In March, as hospitals were running out of room, the Governor issued a directive advising nursing homes in the state to accept patients who had or were suspected of having COVID-19. As long as they were medically stable, the notice said, it was appropriate to move patients in. 

Between March 25 and May 8, approximately 6,326 COVID-positive patients were admitted to nursing homes, according to a state health department report. According to the New York Post, the Governor’s office was following federal guidance by the Centers for Disease Control when they moved patients from hospitals to nursing home facilities. In May, Cuomo changed the order, requiring discharged patients to have a negative COVID-19 test before going to a nursing home. 

Another part of the accusation against Cuomo is based on the reporting of nursing home deaths. When nursing home residents died from COVID-19 but had gone to the hospital for care, the Governor was not counting those who left the nursing home and then died in the hospital. The COVID-19 fatality reporting is still under disagreement according to Bloomberg, with the state’s dashboard reporting 37,556 people have died so far in the state and the New York Times is reporting 45,957. The state has since updated and increased the number of deaths due to COVID-19 in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. 

What we know now about COVID-19 we did not know in March, 2020. New York State was hit extremely hard with the virus, especially the oldest and frailest of the population. Nursing homes are places where diseases can spread rapidly, not only among patients but also with new staff entering the building daily after going home to sometimes multigenerational households, and then needing very close contact in order to properly care for residents. It is therefore not clear how much of the Governor’s policy discharging patients to nursing homes contributed to additional COVID-19 deaths, opposed to nursing homes just being incredibly vulnerable to the virus. An analysis of nursing homes across the states will shed more light. In any case, it is misleading to say that Cuomo killed 15,000 nursing home residents.