On ABC’s The View, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo denied culpability for nursing home deaths in his state and called the scandal a “conspiracy,” Fox News reported.
But Cuomo’s claims about the death rate in nursing homes and his executive order’s role in spreading the virus—which the show’s co-hosts did not challenge—do not line up with the truth, Just Facts Daily reported.
Co-host Sunny Hostin, in an interview with Cuomo about his “absolutely fantastic” book, Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, asked about New York’s nursing home deaths and “confusion about an alleged March 25th order.”
The first error came from the question’s premise. There is nothing “alleged” about thee order.
Cuomo signed an executive order on March 25 that ordered nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients.
“No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” the order said. “[Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”
Cuomo nearly admitted to the horror of this policy decision when he rescidened the order more than a month and a half later.
Nearly 6,000 nursing home residents died before he changed the policy.
“If you look at how many people died in New York nursing homes, New York is number 46 out of 50 states in the percentage of deaths in nursing homes,” Cuomo said to Hostin.
But this figure does not match reality, since the New York Department of Health counts the death of patients who die within nursing homes but does not include nursing home patients who die “outside of the facility.”
Even the far-left Associated Press reported that the state’s nursing home death estimate is understated.
On The View, Cuomo also shifted responsibility from himself to nursing homes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and President Donald Trump, Just Facts Daily reported.
“The way the law works is no nursing home in New York can accept a patient if they don’t believe they can care for that patient adequately, and if they can do it within the safety of their facility,” Cuomo said.
But this statement does not align with the explicit text of his order, which prevented nursing homes from denying access to residents “based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.”
Cuomo even banned COVID-19 testing for nursing home residents altogether.
Then he said in a May 20 press conference that his executive order “followed President Trump’s CDC guidance,” but that guidance does not require nursing homes to accept COVID-positive residents.
Instead, it advises COVID patients to “go to a facility with adequate personal protective equipment supplies and an ability to adhere to infection prevention…”
Later in June, Cuomo admitted to New York’s high death rate but said Trump “had more people die” because he “missed the boat and never told us that this virus was coming from Europe and not from China.”
Trump cut off almost all travel from Europe on March 11, the day that the World Health Organization identified COVID-19 as a pandemic. Cuomo did not issue his destructive stay-at-home order until March 20.
After ignoring scientific evidence about nursing home deaths, “Cuomo and his surrogates then used a series of falsehoods to cast blame for his policy on others.”
“Now, he is impugning people who would hold him accountable for his actions,” Anna Lynn and James Agresti wrote for Just Facts Daily.
