Data a stain on the star
It’s the cover-up that gets them every time. So now what do we think of Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the pandemic? Maybe not so much man-ofthe-year
material anymore, is my guess, since a recent poll shows 40 percent of New Yorkers would now like to see the governor tossed out of office, if the state had such a provision, which it doesn’t. Still. It’s the thought that counts.
Who would have guessed the woefully mishandled data of New York nursing home deaths from the pandemic would have the power to abort the meteoric rise of a political star and reduce his trajectory to not much beyond Albany. Of course every datum was a person, a citizen of New York, most with distraught family and friends. How the governor chose to handle it was uncharacteristically impolitic. I wonder if the latest bombshell, a cotton mouthed apology-explanation for deliberately undercounting the death toll from his top aide Melissa Derosa, is going to hurt his book sales. Hope not.
Derosa told a gathering of Democratic legislative leaders that the reason the numbers were hidden even from them was to keep the real count from a potential politically motivated investigation by Donald Trump’s Justice Department back in August. An investigation that never materialized.
This apology belongs in the circular file marked “the dog ate my homework,” because it begs several questions. August was six months ago. Really? Apologizing now? And why isn’t it the governor doing the apologizing, and not to a bunch of pols but to the relatives of those whose memories were shabbily treated and to the public at large who trusted you? And most of all, why was the state worried about a federal investigation if they had nothing to hide?
Of course, any investigation would have embarrassed the governor. So, translating Derosa, she was apologizing for the state making a stupid, politically motivated decision to counter a Trumpian similar move. That puts Trump and Cuomo in the same cesspool, which speaks volumes.
But Derosa’s apology was a trickle from the dam compared to the open floodgate created by state Attorney General Letitia James’ interim report, “Nursing Home Response to Covid 19 Pandemic.” The AG’S investigation estimates the administration underreported nursing home deaths by as much as 50 percent, along with providing a great deal of revealing information about the behavior of state overseers and a number of nursing homes, plus offerings recommendations on what needs fixing. This report only takes us to Nov. 16 last year, so the final draft ought to be a bestseller.
The media termed the report “scathing” and “explosive.” That
certainly was its effect, notably for blowing away the deceptions by the commissioner of health and governor on the subject. Although I found the report itself all the more credible because it wasn’t hyperbolic, but rather circumspect, if not understated.
Anyway, that report is great grist for the budget hearings ahead, a worthy road map to follow. But this is also the perfect opportunity for the Legislature to once again assert itself as an equal branch of government. The leaders of the Senate and Assembly should follow the lead offered by James, a fellow Democrat, and take a deep dive of their own into the nursing home dumpster. Subpoena witnesses, put them under oath, most especially the governor’s toadie, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker. There has been so much deceptive information put out by our state leaders that putting them under oath is justified. David Axelrod, a late and legendary state health commissioner, must be spinning in his grave for how far his agency has fallen, behaving these days with critical numbers and vital statistics more like Al Capone’s tax accounting firm than a science-based apolitical protector of our public health.
The state Senate’s eagerness to pass a flurry of reform bills even before the hearings is not encouraging, bringing to mind, “Ready, fire, aim.” Fortunately, the Assembly seems to be moving more deliberately.
A joint letter to the governor and legislative leaders made public Friday from AARP, 1199 SEIU and the Long Term Care Coalition on what absolutely needs to happen for proper nursing home reform is also instructive, although these issues are complicated. The letter makes four points:
Ensure nursing homes provide sufficient hours of care to residents.
Require nursing homes to spend “significant portions” of revenues on resident care. Also address all the nooks and crannies of the for-profit business model for nursing homes ( 401 of 619 in the state are for- profit) that allow them to take their profits in myriad ways before providing the service.
Improve infection control enforcement.
Ensure families can visit safely and effectively advocate for their loved ones.
Bill Hammond, a health researcher with the Empire Center for Public Policy that has done good work on this subject, cautions how difficult it is to legislate away bad behavior, say within for-profit nursing homes. Passing laws is appropriate, but monitoring and regulating such behavior is just as important.
That would be the responsibility of the state Health Department . Another good reason to hear from its commissioner.