Christian Wade (Center Square)
House Republicans grilled former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday over his response to the coronavirus pandemic, amid new allegations that Democrats are trying to shift the blame for policies they say contributed to rising nursing home deaths.
Republican members of the Select Committee on COVID-19 Affairs grilled Governor Cuomo for hours about a controversial directive issued by his administration early in the pandemic that required New York state nursing homes and long-term care facilities to admit positive coronavirus patients.
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Lawmakers accused Governor Cuomo of ignoring the science on infection control in nursing homes and guidance from the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare that contradicts the governor’s directives.
“Your directive is inconsistent with federal guidelines and medical doctrine,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the committee chairman, said in his opening remarks. “Highly contagious patients should not be equated with vulnerable patients who are at greater risk of infection and, in this case, death.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, the committee released a memo alleging it had new evidence from testimony that Cuomo and his team “made a deliberate decision to exclude scientifically significant nursing home-associated COVID-19 deaths from the mortality count” and that they “significantly redacted” New York State Department of Health documents “to shift responsibility away from Mr. Cuomo and his team.”
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik said the report’s findings show Cuomo tried to cover up his involvement in “deadly orders” that led to the deaths of “vulnerable elderly” in nursing homes, and that she got into a heated argument with the former governor after she called on him to apologize to families who lost loved ones in nursing homes during the pandemic.
“This is about seniors. There are families sitting here today,” she said. “I want you to turn around, look them in the eye and apologize, and you haven’t been able to. Will you do that?”
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Other Republicans criticized Governor Cuomo for a lack of empathy for taking responsibility for policies that they say have led to high COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities.
“You have shown no remorse or responsibility for your administration’s actions,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York said in a statement. “This is not leadership.”
Cuomo, a Democrat who resigned in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations, defended himself before the House committee and blasted Republican lawmakers for running a “partisan” investigation.
He blamed then-President Donald Trump for the rising number of coronavirus deaths in the country, claiming he “intentionally misled the American people” during the pandemic.
“His lies and denials slowed our response and allowed the virus to spread before our country could catch up,” Cuomo said in fiery opening remarks. “And this Republican-run subcommittee is repeating Mr. Trump’s lies and deceptions.”
Democrats on the committee, including Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., defended Cuomo during grilling overnight Tuesday and also sought to focus blame on Trump’s response to the pandemic.
The March 25 directive required nursing homes to accept “medically stable” patients who had recovered from COVID-19 and had been discharged from a hospital in 2020. Though it was rescinded weeks later, Cuomo was widely criticized for contributing to a rise in deaths in the state’s long-term care facilities.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 80,000 New Yorkers, including 15,000 nursing home residents, died from COVID-19 between the start of the pandemic and May 2023.
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Cuomo noted that the Department of Justice investigated whether his policies violated the civil rights of New York nursing home residents but found no wrongdoing. He also pointed to a probe by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office that was later dropped. He said both investigations found that New York’s directives were consistent with federal health policies in effect at the time.
“Furthermore, this report provides no evidence to support President Trump’s central assertion for three years that New York’s guidelines killed thousands of people in nursing homes,” he said. “All credible studies now show that COVID got into nursing homes through community transmission, not through hospitalization or re-admission. The numbers don’t lie.”
Distributed with permission From Centre Square.
