During the COVID-19 panic, one of the more baffling actions taken by a government official anywhere in the country was New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's placing COVID patients in the populations that were at the very highest risk for not just COVID but any respiratory ailment, namely, nursing homes. Now the former governor is being called to account for that action, as on Tuesday he will be called before the House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to give his account of what happened.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is paying a visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a closed-door transcribed interview with the House select subcommittee investigating the coronavirus pandemic.
Cuomo's handling of the pandemic as governor has been a significant focus of the panel's – in particular, a March 25, 2020, executive order by the then-governor that restricted nursing homes from refusing to admit or readmit residents "solely based on confirmed or suspect[ed] diagnosis of COVID-19."
"We want to uncover the circumstances that led to this. There has to be some kind of process where this was written up and he signed it. And we want to make sure that something like this is never repeated," subcommittee Chair Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital. "I'm a physician who happens to care. And I'm concerned for my fellow Americans, especially during a very difficult time in a pandemic. So, who advised such things?"
Who advised such things?
We may or may not find out who advised Governor Cuomo in this matter, but that's neither here nor there. The decision was his to make. He made it. He was in charge; his name is and always will be on that blame line.See Related: What Do Governors Really Think of Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo? NH Gov Chris Sununu Spills the Tea
As far as transparency, we know the answer to that already.
A damning report released in March 2022 by the New York State comptroller found Cuomo's Health Department "was not transparent in its reporting of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes" and it "understated the number of deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50%" during some points of the pandemic.
This was a careless policy that remained in place longer than was necessary, but it's unlikely that former Governor Cuomo, whose political career was brought to a halt by a different, unrelated scandal, will face any real consequences from this testimony, however embarrassing it may prove - and no matter how much pain and grief he caused the families of New York nursing home residents exposed to COVID patients for no good reason. The most we can hope for out of this testimony is, likely, an object lesson on how not to do things in a pandemic.
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