Wednesday, July 8, 2020

An independent investigation must be done after 6300 New York COVID-19 patients were sent to nursing homes.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

New York Governor Cuomo
An independent investigation into the order by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, that COVID-19 patients be sent to nursing homes must be conducted.


On May 13 I reported that Governor Cuomo, had rescinded a policy forcing nursing homes to accept Covid-19 positive patients.

I stated that a policy forcing nursing homes to accept residents infected with a deadly virus that spreads was a policy that would lead to many deaths.

On May 22, Bernard Condon, Jennifer Peltz and Jim Mustian reported for the Associated Press (AP) that more than 4500 COVID-19 patients were sent to New York nursing homes.
 

On July 7, Marina Villeneuve and Jennifer Peltz reported an update for AP stating that 6300 COVID-19 positive patients were sent to nursing homes in New York. The AP report stated:
New York hospitals released more than 6,300 recovering coronavirus patients into nursing homes during the height of the pandemic under a controversial, now-scrapped policy, state officials said Monday, but they argued it was not to blame for one of the nation’s highest nursing home death tolls.
According to the AP article, state officials blamed infected home care staff who were unaware of having COVID-19 for the widespread infections and deaths in nursing homes and not the policy of sending infected patients to nursing homes.

The AP article reported that the policy of sending COVID-19 positive patients to nursing homes was based on a fear that hospitals would be overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. The AP report stated:

To date, more than 6,400 deaths have been linked to the coronavirus in New York’s nursing home and long-term care-facilities.

Cuomo, a Democrat, reversed the directive under pressure on May 10, but he has argued for weeks that infected home workers, not released COVID-19 patients, were to blame for a coronavirus spread through nursing homes that he compared to “fire through dry grass.”
Logic dictates that sending COVID-19 positive patients to nursing homes must have been a key reason for the spread of COVID-19 in New York nursing homes. 

It is likely that staff became infected with COVID-19 after being in contact with infected residents. Thousands of New York nursing home resident deaths may be connected to the misguided policy of Governor Cuomo. 

Based on the number of COVID-19 deaths in New York nursing homes requires an independent investigation into the order by Governor Cuomo that possibly led to thousands of nursing home resident deaths.

3 comments:

Nancy said...

OUCH.

Michel said...

Mr. Cuomo is doing well in USA for managing the Covid-19 crisis. He is almost the only one true leader that we can actually hear and watch on TV making the right decisions for the Common Good of the New York citizens. It is not because he is in a certain political party : it's because is brain is working properly to give good directives to his people. So, could you please don't politise this issue like other groups try to do on other platforms? As Mr. Cuomo said, the Covid-19 is not something we should use to make politics because it's a question of life or death.

Voice of Gone Ballistic said...

I agree with Michel. During this time New York was in a state of war and triage is legal.