“Every day you think about it and you miss so much, it’s just terrible,” he told CNN at his home in Albany.
Evince Minicel died in April after contracting Kovid-19 in her nursing home, Minicel said. She would have turned 94 on Valentine’s Day. Minicelle’s father-in-law, Edward Bridgford, was in the same nursing home and died of the virus two weeks later, he said. Both fell ill in a nursing home and later died at the hospital.
Peter Arbini said his final farewell to his 89-year-old father, Norman Urbani, more than a week after he was pulled from a Brooklyn nursing home in late March.
“It was a horrible, emotionally challenging time dealing with a sick parent who needed medical help. And we were in a race to get him out of the nursing home. We found him, but he came out with a covid,” says Arbini. Is.
But in addition to the grief of losing loved ones to the coronavirus, New York families faced the politics surrounding death.
Minicell is clear about its frustration with handling the epidemic by the Cumus administration when it comes to nursing homes. Democrat Arbeni, a lifelong Democrat who voted for Cuomo, says “Democrats are on the wrong side of history with this issue” and vows to get to the bottom of why so many nursing home residents in the state have died.
Covid-19 is harassing nursing homes in New York
The issue for these families includes an advisory issued on March 25 last year, in which, Kumo enacted an order requiring nursing homes, which, if patients are considered to be medically stable, to accept patients transferred to hospitals who previously tested positive for Covid-19 Was. .
Families believe the counselor, in part, pushed the virus into homes where the most vulnerable remain.
“He (Cuomo) was saying that we (Covid-19) should not be allowed to enter the nursing homes, it would pass like wildfire (residents),” Minisel said, referring to a version of the governor’s daily Covid-19, and at the same time When he tells you this, he brings out a command … which contradicts itself. “
Miniselle lost her mother and father-in-law within a six-week period, prompting the Cuomo administration to withdraw the order.
On Monday, Cuomo addressed the issue at a lengthy news conference, completing the general charts and personal reflections we have come to expect from the governor.
He referred to the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which he says follow his administration. “Residents leaving hospitals at that time were not likely to be infected, because at that time, the viral load was (so) low that (they) were not contagious,” Kuomo said. “
Cuomo also said that the health of Covid-19 patients was transferred from hospitals as early as possible so that they would not contract a secondary infection, and that nursing homes could only accept patients if they were able to care for them.
He doubled down on his claim that it was the caregivers who brought the virus to facilities, not orders.
“Nursing homes were not accessed by people coming from Kuvid hospitals,” Kuomo said Monday. “Covid entered the nursing home by staff going to the nursing home, when we didn’t know we had Covid.”
In a news briefing on Friday, Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said he is with his decision on March 25.
“We made the right decision for public health at the time, and we will make the same decisions again in the face of the same facts,” he said.
He added that, at the time, the models showed that hospital admissions activities were growing at a “surprising pace” and the state was running at ICU capacity.
He said that since May – when the advice was rejected – no resident has been admitted to the facility without a negative test, visits are still prohibited, and staff inspections are conducted twice a week.
“And yet, we’re still seeing nursing home outbreaks and casualties, the same rate of nursing home deaths that we saw before March 25, and in the fall and winter,” Zucker said.
His revelation is that the families had heard it before and, to them, it doesn’t add up.
He feels the governor has made a bad call and wonders why he has not considered other options such as placing long-term care residents in field facilities, such as the Javits Center, to recover rather than return to their home facilities.
Families want the Kuamo administration to own a portion of what the consultant has played in spreading the virus to these facilities at the height of the epidemic in New York.
“He doesn’t allow us to grieve, that’s what really annoys me. Only you own the mistakes and let’s learn from them and move on,” Arbeny said.
Cover-up claims
At the onset of the epidemic, only Covid-19 deaths were reported in New York where people died.
Minicelle, for example, says her mother and father-in-law were prescribed death in hospitals, not nursing homes.
Some families who lost loved ones of Covid-19 in nursing homes, the decision on how the data came out seemed an attempt to hide the true value of Kumo’s actions, including the March 25 order.
In a virtual meeting with a group of Democratic state legislators last week, Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, admitted to lawmakers that they were “frozen” after receiving the DOJ’s request.
“We were in a situation where we weren’t sure what we would give to the Justice Department or what we give you, what we start saying will be used against us,” he said. A transcript of the call issued by the Governor’s Office.
“If they’re frozen by an inquiry letter, what do they think they did to us with their March 25 directive,” Arbeni said. Can you show us health? Care professionals who said this is a good idea? “
Earlier this month, a New York Supreme Court judge ruled in favor of the Empire Center for Public Policy, forcing the state to give a true account of the death of Kovid-19 in nursing homes.
“There’s no water in his (Cuomo’s) explanation. I don’t know if we’ll ever get a direct answer,” says Bill Hammond, a senior health policy fellow at the Empire Center for Public Policy. “It has seriously damaged their credibility. It’s important that people trust people who make decisions.”
CNN has reached out to Cuomo’s administration to respond to the family’s comments, but has not listened back.
Apologies and an inquiry
Kumo, on Monday, claimed responsibility for the “void” that there was a delay in releasing the data created, but said his administration was not hiding anything and that the numbers released by the health department were accurate.
“By providing the information, we were filled with canceled skepticism and condemnation and conspiracy theories that fueled this confusion … and created more concern for the families of these loved ones,” he said.
But some families and legislators believe Kuomo is playing politics and his revelations are not helpful.
“We apologized and we didn’t get it (Monday). We got protection, we got attitude. We needed sympathy from them. We needed respect from our governor,” says Arbini.
Hammond says its profitability is now “analyzing the data” to determine the impact of the March 25 order.
Minicel and Arbeni say they hope the state legislature will investigate further, which has been demanded by Republicans and debated by some Democrats, according to a CNN report.
“I have not asked for his resignation. I have not asked for impeachment. I want nothing more than an apology and a proper investigation,” Arbeni said. “The truth never has to be explained again, lies happen.”
Cuomo said Monday he explained what happened and there was nothing to investigate.
Aaron Cooper and Christina Siglia contributed to the story.
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