The current talking point from the media and the Dems is that President Trump did not act quickly enough to stop the pandemic from hitting the US. They ignore that every time Trump took action early on, the Dems and the media screamed that he was "racist" for shutting entry from China, or he was "over-reacting" to use Joe Biden's phraseology. Of course, Biden has now switched sides on what he says and the media covers for him.
The real question of the moment, though, is whether anyone should be blamed for how the response to the virus was handled. In truth, there is one person who truly deserves major blame for many deaths. That person is Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York. The relevant facts are just coming out.
1. New York has many more deaths than any other state. Roughly 40% of all deaths in the USA have been in the state of New York.
2. New York has only 30% of the cases across the country. That means that the death rate is much higher for people who were infected in New York.
3. Close to 30% of those who died in NY were elderly people in nursing homes. The devastation to nursing home patients was terrible.
4. And here's the kicker: the NY state health department in March issued an order to all nursing homes in the state that they had to take in patients who were still testing positive for the virus. Think of that. With all the fragile people in the nursing home and with the extremely contagious nature of the virus, the state government ordered nursing homes that they could NOT keep out patients just because they were testing positive for the virus.
5. Today, we further learned that the state health department also issued rules that nursing home staff who tested positive for the virus could continue at work so long as they wore a mask.
Put this all together and we find that the state government (for which Cuomo is responsible) forced nursing homes to take in infected patients and keep on infected staff. Putting these people into a facility near all these people in very fragile health before exposure to the virus was a virtual guarantee that the virus would spread quickly through the nursing home. It was like putting a stick of dynamite in the home and then lighting the fuse.
There was substantial push back from the operators of the nursing home with regard to these actions by the state. Cuomo did nothing to change the rules.
I realize that Cuomo was under great pressure and was perhaps distracted. He did have time, however, to hold daily press briefings. Maybe if he spent a bit more time paying attention to his job, thousands of people who died in nursing homes would still be alive.
The real question of the moment, though, is whether anyone should be blamed for how the response to the virus was handled. In truth, there is one person who truly deserves major blame for many deaths. That person is Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York. The relevant facts are just coming out.
1. New York has many more deaths than any other state. Roughly 40% of all deaths in the USA have been in the state of New York.
2. New York has only 30% of the cases across the country. That means that the death rate is much higher for people who were infected in New York.
3. Close to 30% of those who died in NY were elderly people in nursing homes. The devastation to nursing home patients was terrible.
4. And here's the kicker: the NY state health department in March issued an order to all nursing homes in the state that they had to take in patients who were still testing positive for the virus. Think of that. With all the fragile people in the nursing home and with the extremely contagious nature of the virus, the state government ordered nursing homes that they could NOT keep out patients just because they were testing positive for the virus.
5. Today, we further learned that the state health department also issued rules that nursing home staff who tested positive for the virus could continue at work so long as they wore a mask.
Put this all together and we find that the state government (for which Cuomo is responsible) forced nursing homes to take in infected patients and keep on infected staff. Putting these people into a facility near all these people in very fragile health before exposure to the virus was a virtual guarantee that the virus would spread quickly through the nursing home. It was like putting a stick of dynamite in the home and then lighting the fuse.
There was substantial push back from the operators of the nursing home with regard to these actions by the state. Cuomo did nothing to change the rules.
I realize that Cuomo was under great pressure and was perhaps distracted. He did have time, however, to hold daily press briefings. Maybe if he spent a bit more time paying attention to his job, thousands of people who died in nursing homes would still be alive.
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