The Twisted Tyranny of Andrew Cuomo

By Ilana Freedman, Intelligence Analyst May 21st, 2020

When COVID-19 hit the U.S., one of the first things we learned about it was that it was most dangerous for the elderly. In fact, the first cluster of infections and deaths in the U.S. occurred at the Life Care long-term nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, where there was an outbreak of the virus. The first in the U.S. Several residents had already died before the virus was recognized, and dozens of other residents and staff were showing symptoms. 

From the beginning, we knew it was more dangerous for the elderly, who were warned to be especially careful. So why did New York Governor Andrew Cuomo think it was a good idea to require New York nursing homes to accept patients known to have COVID-19? 

On March 25, Cuomo issued an executive order that mandated NY state nursing homes and assisted living facilities to take in active COVID-19 patients, even though these facilities did not have the capability of protecting their residents from the disease. As a result, at least one third of all the COVID-19 deaths in New York occurred in nursing homes. 

Cuomo made this decision despite the fact that a week earlier, President Trump had authorized the deployment to Manhattan of the 1000-bed hospital ship USNS Comfort, the largest hospital ship in the world. The Comfort, with its 1,200 person crew and medical staff, was meant to provide 1,000 more beds to help what Cuomo suggested would be the crush of patients that the city would not be able handle on its own. The President also helped New York City set up a second emergency treatment center at the Javits Center in Manhattan. 

But neither of these facilities were ever filled to capacity. Not even close. When the Comfort left New York at the end of April, it had treated only 182 patients, less than 20% of its capacity. Likewise, the field hospital at the Javits Convention Center was set up to receive 2,500 non-COVID-19 patients in order to lighten the expected load of coronavirus patients in NYC’s hospitals. But it never saw the masses of patients that Cuomo insisted were coming. When non-coronavirus patients didn’t show up, the Javits Center was retrofitted to a COVID-19 hospital, at considerable expense for the conversion. But the highest number of patients ever treated there was never more than 500. 

The amount of waste that Cuomo’s inflated estimates and hysterical demands to the President created was inexcusable in the middle of a pandemic in which every hospital bed, every ventilator, every nurse and doctor was in great demand and seriously overworked. 

Yet despite his panicked and highly exaggerated demands for medical support, and the President’s timely response, and despite the fact that most of these requested beds were empty, Cuomo had no qualms about forcing nursing homes, which housed the most vulnerable members of New York’s population, to take in active COVID-19 patients and risk the lives of every one of them. He called it “their “basic fiduciary obligation,” which is absolute rubbish.............To Read More....