Time to subpoena State Health Department on nursing home deaths
Have you noticed the weather’s getting colder, the leaves are falling and fall is just around the corner? We’ve learned alot aboutCOVID-19, but we don’ t know everything about a virus that’s attacked our most vulnerable population and taken thousands of lives.
It’s time for the state Legislature to act and subpoena the state Health Department (DOH) to get the real number of COVID-19 nursing homes deaths.
At this point, there seems little dispute that there were many more deaths than the 6,500 people that the DOH says died within the four walls of our state-regulated nursing homes. That number is likely significantly higher as many residents were believed to have contracted the virus at a nursing home and then transported to a hospital where they ultimately lost their lives.
On March 13 th, the Governor signed an Executive Order
restricting all visitors to nursing homes in NewYork State.
On March 25 th, the Governor issued an Executive Order barring COVID-19 testing of those being placed or returning to nursing homes and forced them to be accepted into the nursing homes citing discrimination by keeping them out – making New York the only state in the nation with such a policy. We now know the real the real discrimination was on those who were in nursing homes and relatively healthy, but may have had some underlying health conditions that could comprise their safety.
The Governor did not reverse this controversial order until May 11th after much public outcry. In the intervening time between the March 25th Executive Order and the Governor’s May 11th reversal, we saw the tragic deaths of thousands of people in New York’s nursing homes from COVID-19.
The Governor and state Commissioner Zucker kept saying during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis that we should “follow the science.”
To follow the science, we need unbiased facts and figures aboutwhathappened, regardless of whether that data could be potentially embarrassing totheAdministration, that led to the deaths of thousands in state-regulated nursing homes from a virus that the Governor said spread like “fire through dried grass.”
On August 20th, Senate Majority Health Chair Gustavo Rivera, Senate Investigations Chair James Skoufis, Senate Aging Chair Rachel May and Senate Regulatory Review Commission member Simcha Felder wrote to Commissioner Zucker with a list of 17 questions provided by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle regarding nursing home deaths and care provided to New Yorkers with COVID-19 in state-regulated nursing homes. The Senators gave Zucker a three-week deadline to respond.
It’s been weeks since the deadline passed and the DOH seemingly has yet to issue a response.
That’s why myself and Senator Sue S erin oar eur gin gt he Senate Majority Chairs of the Health, Investigations. and Aging Committees to subpoena Commissioner Zucker to get the Cuomo Administration to stop hiding data and start revealing the real number of COVID-19 nursing homes deaths and what happened that caused this terrible tragedy.
Specifically, we are requesting the Senate Majority subpoena for the Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS) data regularly submitted to DOH by facilities throughout the state. DOH through HERD S collects daily numbers of confirmed and presumed C OVID deaths that take place inside and outside nursing homes and assisted care facilities.
We have also requested the Majority Chairs support bringing to the Floor our bi- partisan legislation with Democratic Assembly man Ron Kim (S.8756/A.10857) that would establish an independent investigation with subpoena power to perform a top-to-bottom review of what happened in the state’s nursing homes to get answers and provide a measure of closure for the families of those who lost their lives and helpp repare for a secondwave of the pandemic.
I’ve also launched a statewide petition drive with Senator Daphne Jordan and Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh to harness the power of the residents of New York to urge the Governor to release the real numbers. You can sign that petition by visiting my website at: https:// www.nysenate.gov/petitions/ james- tedisco/governorcuomo-release-real-nursinghome-numbers.
History has shown that the cover-up is often worse than what’s being covered-up.
The DOH and the Administration have been given plenty of time to respond to our polite requests for information about the deaths of thousands of New Yorkers in state-regulated nursing homes.
Enough stonewalling. Our constituents who lost loved ones demand answers andwe need to prepare for a potential second wave of COVID-19 or the next virus that comes along in the future.