Media star Andrew Cuomo, the governor of NY, truly has blood on his hands. New York is the epicenter of the worldwide corona virus pandemic. Deaths in just NY state exceed 25,000. That, of course, is not all Cuomo's fault. There are many reasons why the virus hit so hard in NY, and most of them are not attributable to Cuomo. There are, however, two big issues that have Cuomo's name written all over them. They all pertain to how the virus and its effect on patients in nursing homes was handled.
Let's start with some basic facts.
1. Between 5 and 6 thousand deaths in NY took place in nursing homes. These are deaths from the virus for which the patient was not transferred to a hospital, but rather died right in the nursing home.
2. More than another 5 thousand deaths in hospitals in NY were of nursing home patients who had been sent there for treatment. That makes the total dead from nursing homes over ten thousand people. That's about 40% of the total dead statewide. In fact, it's about 15% of all the dead in the entire USA.
3. The nursing homes in NY were hit particularly hard. The virus spread through many of them like wild fire. And why was that? It comes down to three basic decisions made by the Cuomo administration.
a. The nursing homes were told by the state department of health that they could not deny entry to a patient just because that patient had tested positive for the virus. According to reports, most nursing homes understood that to mean that they had to take such patients. The problem is that the virus is so contagious that once these positive patients were admitted, the virus spread to many other vulnerable people.
b. The nursing homes were also told by the same state department of health that nursing home staff members who had tested positive for the virus could continue to work in the facility so long as they used protective measures like masks and gowns and gloves. This is a direct violation of the standards set by the CDC which requires medical staff to self isolate at home rather than continuing to see patients. How many nursing home patients were infected by these staff members? We'll never know for sure.
c. NY had many extra hospital beds on the navy hospital ship, in the Javits Center and in the many other hospitals built by the Corps of Engineers. The state never filled these extra facilities up. There were always thousands of extra empty beds. It would have been easy for the state government to have decided to send those nursing home patients who tested positive to one of these hospitals rather than forcing them back in the nursing homes. Cuomo never made that move.
We can only guess how many thousands of people would still be alive today if Cuomo had spent less time on TV and spent more time focused on the big problems NY was facing. Whatever that number is, however, it is NOT a low one.
Cuomo really should resign.
Let's start with some basic facts.
1. Between 5 and 6 thousand deaths in NY took place in nursing homes. These are deaths from the virus for which the patient was not transferred to a hospital, but rather died right in the nursing home.
2. More than another 5 thousand deaths in hospitals in NY were of nursing home patients who had been sent there for treatment. That makes the total dead from nursing homes over ten thousand people. That's about 40% of the total dead statewide. In fact, it's about 15% of all the dead in the entire USA.
3. The nursing homes in NY were hit particularly hard. The virus spread through many of them like wild fire. And why was that? It comes down to three basic decisions made by the Cuomo administration.
a. The nursing homes were told by the state department of health that they could not deny entry to a patient just because that patient had tested positive for the virus. According to reports, most nursing homes understood that to mean that they had to take such patients. The problem is that the virus is so contagious that once these positive patients were admitted, the virus spread to many other vulnerable people.
b. The nursing homes were also told by the same state department of health that nursing home staff members who had tested positive for the virus could continue to work in the facility so long as they used protective measures like masks and gowns and gloves. This is a direct violation of the standards set by the CDC which requires medical staff to self isolate at home rather than continuing to see patients. How many nursing home patients were infected by these staff members? We'll never know for sure.
c. NY had many extra hospital beds on the navy hospital ship, in the Javits Center and in the many other hospitals built by the Corps of Engineers. The state never filled these extra facilities up. There were always thousands of extra empty beds. It would have been easy for the state government to have decided to send those nursing home patients who tested positive to one of these hospitals rather than forcing them back in the nursing homes. Cuomo never made that move.
We can only guess how many thousands of people would still be alive today if Cuomo had spent less time on TV and spent more time focused on the big problems NY was facing. Whatever that number is, however, it is NOT a low one.
Cuomo really should resign.
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