(DCWatchdog.com) – In a tremendously damaging admission for the left, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been forced to admit that his administration contributed to the causes of thousands of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
On Tuesday, Cuomo told a congressional hearing that he did not consult public-health authorities before his administration ordered nursing homes to accept Covid-positive patients.
US Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), who chairs the coronavirus subcommittee, challenged Cuomo about his directive from March 25, 2020, which required New York nursing homes to admit patients who had tested positive for Covid to alleviate pressure on hospitals.
This directive seemed to contradict federal guidelines that advised nursing homes against admitting Covid-positive patients unless they could adhere to the safety procedures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.
Wenstrup persistently questioned Cuomo about whether he had consulted public-health authorities to ensure the order was in line with federal guidelines, National Review reports.
Cuomo acknowledged that he had not done so but noted that the New York State Health Department was consistently issuing public-health guidance early in the pandemic.
Cuomo appeared before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic after the panel had examined over half a million documents and had privately questioned Cuomo and numerous top officials from his administration.
“In search for best pandemic practices, today’s hearing is focused on New York and the March 25, 2020, directive from the New York State Department of Health issued under Governor Andrew Cuomo’s leadership,” Wenstrup stated in his opening remarks, indicating a potentially heated discussion.
“You are the leader. The buck stops with you — or at least it should. It’s important to look at your Administration’s record. Two weeks after you learned about the order, your office changed the methodology of how nursing home fatalities were categorized: You removed out-of-facility deaths that occurred at the hospital, altering the full accounting of nursing home deaths,” the Republican added.
This order led to the spread of coronavirus in nursing homes and contributed to thousands of additional deaths during the pandemic, even as Cuomo received national praise for his leadership.
Over 9,000 individuals were admitted and readmitted to nursing homes because of the order.
Cuomo, defiant and prepared, accused House Republicans of using former President Donald Trump’s critiques of the nursing-home order and claimed Trump’s administration had used the Justice Department to target his state to shift blame for his management of the pandemic.
Echoing Cuomo’s sentiments, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and other Democratic lawmakers spent much time during the hearing revisiting the Trump administration’s pandemic response.
Cuomo frequently tried to divert the discussion from his own management to Trump’s unpredictable behavior and political maneuvers.
Maintaining his innocence, Cuomo repeatedly referred to a study by the New York Attorney General, which he believed vindicated his nursing-home directive and demonstrated its compliance with federal guidelines, despite contradictory evidence.
On Monday, the coronavirus panel released a memo outlining Cuomo’s role in the issuance of the directive and the alleged cover-up of death totals by commissioning a deceptive report from his administration’s health department.
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