What he did…
To put it simply, Gov. Andrew Cuomo misrepresented the total number of deaths that were happening in New York area nursing homes during the early months of the pandemic. He chose to only count the deaths that were happening to nursing home residents as general population. In other words, if a resident of a nursing home happened to catch COVID-19 physically inside the nursing home and then was transported to a hospital where that person eventually died, the person would by designated as a general population death and not one directly connected to a senior care facility.
Why it matters…
During a public health emergency as devastating as a global pandemic, it is of the utmost importance to gather the most accurate information possible as things happen. This is an absolute necessity because it not only gives health officials the information they need to track outbreaks, but also the most accurate information on where to direct resources.
Governor Cuomo’s decision to read these numbers in this way possibly cost hundreds if not thousands of lives of our most vulnerable residents.
Why he did it…
Governor Cuomo’s administration has said that they chose to interpret these statistics in this manner because they did not want to double-count the number of deaths, since things were happening very quickly.
This argument has been quickly discounted. A number of surrounding states (e.g. New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut) were able to make these counts accurate and reported them correctly. In fact, there is already infrastructure set up for this type of death reporting to avoid double-counts or miscounts.
What happens next…
What happens next is up for debate. There are plans for impeachment and or calls for resignation. The will of the people and the amount of anger and frustration will be the driving force as to which way the pendulum swings.
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