For a Reliable Nursing-Home Probe
Gov. Cuomo on Wednesday insisted he did everything he could to protect residents of the state’s nursing homes during the COVID-19 crisis. Apparently, even some Democrats disagree.
Several Democratic state lawmakers are now demanding an independent investigation of how the Cuomo administration has handled the coronavirus outbreak in nursing homes, which have seen more than 5,300 deaths from the virus. They’ve got strong grounds for their demand.
Last month, Cuomo announced that Attorney General Letitia James and the state Health Department would begin an inquiry. But Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) — who’s leading the charge for an independent review — fears the findings of that probe might downplay (or, worse, cover up) the state’s own failures, since James and Team Cuomo work closely together.
“There needs to be an independent review of what’s going on with COVID-19 and nursing homes, especially in the context of decades of problems in New York and Health Department protection of nursinghome residents,” railed Gottfried.
“A review needs to be independent,” he added. “Since the state attorney general, by law, regularly is the department’s lawyer, it would be best if the attorney general brought in an outside counsel.”
Not to mention that James owes her current job in large part to Cuomo’s support.
Meanwhile, some Republicans have already called for a federal probe. And we, too, have called for an independent investigation, one that tries to figure out specifically why Cuomo’s health czar, Howard Zucker, forced nursing homes to start taking in virus-positive patients — knowing these facilities house the most vulnerable.
Even Cuomo admits he and his folks “knew the nursing homes were going to be a target.”
Which is why it’s outrageous to hear Cuomo claim, as he did Wednesday, that he and other officials did their best.
“As a society, you can’t save everyone,” he said during his daily press briefing. “But we did everything we could.”
Maybe he’s covering for a horrendous decision by Zucker — or maybe there’s something more than that. But with so many residents who’ve died at nursing homes, New Yorkers deserve answers they can trust.
Democratic Assemblyman Dan Rosenthal had it right: “These facilities were supposed to be strongholds of health and care; instead they became breeding grounds for the virus amongst our most vulnerable.”
New Yorkers need to know they can trust any probe that tries to explain why.