NEW York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s hated Covid nursing home policy may have led to one thousand deaths, according to a watchdog.
As investigators are looking into the actions of Cuomo’s coronavirus task force, a new study revealed data that suggests the acceptance of Covid patients in nursing homes during the pandemic might have led to a rise in deaths.
The Empire Center for Public Policy’s study connected “several hundred and possibly more than 1,000” to an order that made state nursing homes take in coronavirus patients from hospitals.
A draft report by the Empire Center, obtained by the New York Post, explains: “The findings contradict a central conclusion of the state Department of Health’s July 6 report on coronavirus in nursing homes.
“Which said, among other things: ‘Admission policies were not a significant factor in nursing home fatalities,’ and ‘the data do not show a consistent relationship between admissions and increased mortality.'”
According to the data, a nursing home policy – which was in place from March 25 to May 10 – may have been “associated with” one in six nursing home deaths across New York.
In that time frame, New York State nursing homes saw a reported 5,780 deaths, the watchdog study reveals.
Outside New York City, an average of 9.3 more people died in nursing homes that accepted Covid hospital patents, the study found.
The study’s author, Bill Hammond, slammed Cuomo’s policy for making “a bad situation worse.”
According to the Post, Hammond said his findings “raises more questions about the credibility of the Health Department’s analysis.”
“Their methodology was questionable – we know they used partial data for crucial variables, deaths and admissions,” he reportedly said, referring to a July report.
Meanwhile, Cuomo has been ripped for “bullying’”by NYC mayor Bill de Blasio after “belittling phone calls” to an assemblyman were uncovered.
De Blasio backed up state lawmaker Ron Kim after it was revealed the New York Governor had threatened him during phone conversations for exposing a nursing home death cover-up.
Speaking to MSNBC this week De Blasio said: “It’s a sad thing to say but that’s classic Andrew Cuomo. A lot of people in New York state have received those phone calls.
“The bullying is nothing new. I believe Ron Kim and it’s very, very sad. No public servant, no person who is telling the truth, should be treated that way.
“The threats, the belittling, the demand that someone change their statement right that moment – many, many times I’ve heard that and I know a lot of other people in the state that have heard that.”
Previously Kim had revealed Gov. Cuomo called him multiple times asking him to lie and said his career would be destroyed if he spoke out.
However, Cuomo’s office released a statement from an adviser to the governor who was with Cuomo for the call that said Kim was lying about what transpired.
Cuomo has been under fire after his secretary Melissa DeRosa admitted on a conference call his administration withheld the true nursing homes death toll, fearing that they would be “used against us.”
