It turns out it's all spin. I'll admit it took quite a bit of digging to get beyond all the nypost/wsj/fox stories spreading misinformation. Yes, Cuomo said a COVID-19 diagnosis was not a reason to exclude patients from returning to a nursing home in March. But also, hospital bed space was absolutely critical during that time. While this was happening, about 25% of the nursing home workforce was infected anyway, and staff seems to have been the primary means of transmission. Also, after a week or so of showing symptoms, it was thought that the patients are no longer infectious to others.
The reason that you, my family, and the right-wing media are going crazy over Cuomo's decision is because Trump is making it a political issue and using this as a talking point. The reality is that Cuomo arguably made the best decision possible at the time, and there wasn't really an alternative. Other states made the same decision at the time, and based on the outbreak numbers we're seeing today, we'll see that decision again in the near future. The only other option was to let hospitals overflow their capacity. Maybe there should have been centers for COVID patients that are released from hospitals, but that's a massive logistical problem to be solved on short notice in the middle of a pandemic.
Cuomo's executive order happened in March. By May, once things were getting under control, Cuomo changed that order, presumably because hospitals now had more capacity to house patients. Take a look at the curve from NY and tell me you could have made a better decision at the time: https://www.syracuse.com/coronavirus-ny/
If you want a reason to be outraged at Cuomo, the real scandal here is NY state providing immunity from lawsuits to nursing homes who mishandled the outbreak. The reason you're not hearing outrage about that from right-wing press is that it's also a republican strategy. States across the country are granting lawsuit immunity to protect insurance companies and care facilities.
This is the closest you're going to get to the real story, if you'd like to learn more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/nyregion/nursing-homes-de...
> about 25% of the nursing home workforce was infected anyway
The logical thing to do would be to _move them out_, not get that number to 100%.
> It's not so much a partisan issue as it is absolute shit state government issue. The decision to decimate the elderly was made at the state level, without exception. Governor Cuomo in particular needs to go to jail, in spite of granting himself immunity for this.
This is the spin.
The fact that you're aware of this order being enacted in New York and unaware that the same guidelines existed in 12 other states, including New Jersey, should make it really clear that this is anti-Cuomo spin. Another indication is that searching for "cuomo covid nursing homes" yields almost exclusively right-wing publications of questionable veracity. Also he's a Democrat from New York, and the governor of New York is traditionally a high profile target. Also, at the time the story broke, Cuomo's daily press briefings were seen as competing with Trump's daily briefings. When you add all that together, it's pretty obvious to me that there's going to be some spin here, which doesn't mean the spin isn't true, but it's good to be aware that it's happening.
> 40% of all deaths being in nursing homes? That it's not a good idea to send C19 patients to nursing homes? That NY has three times the death rate of Italy?
I'm not disputing any of that. COVID disproportionately impacts the elderly. Sending patients to any facility not specifically designed for it is a bad idea. I don't know enough about Italy to comment as to why they may have fared better.
> That states which locked down nursing homes have much lower fatalities?
I assume you're talking about places that stood up COVID-only facilities quickly. I think everyone, even Cuomo, knew that this was the best thing to do, but for whatever reasons it couldn't be executed in NY. But as we know, NY wasn't the only state that failed this test. I'm fairly certain Cuomo would have picked separate facilities if that was a possibility and the better option for public health.
> I don't see how you can even begin to argue that Cuomo's handling of the crisis was at least atrocious, if not outright malicious.
Cuomo was a rational actor here, unfortunately.
The problem has at least two significant dimensions:
1) Elder care is for profit, and not having those patients causes a financial loss for the care facilities. This has always been a moral hazard and is why these facilities are known for their poor standards of care. If a facility can figure out a way to cut expense or accept more patients, the facility will make more money. Like many problems, it's always been there, but it's made much worse by the pandemic. I don't know if Cuomo was lobbied to make the decision for care facilities to accept discharged COVID patients, but it is a possibility.
2) There's been a lack of federal leadership on pandemic preparedness. Cuomo's decision was to free up hospital resources by releasing patients back to care facilities. It's hard to fault him for that given the predictions at the time and the very real threat of saturating the entire health care system. Pandemics cross state lines and the federal government should take charge of the situation and ensure a uniform response. The current administration has decided to leave the majority of the response for the states to figure out. Additionally, somewhat famously, the current administration disbanded their pandemic response team: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/
I would be super happy if you read this whole comment and think "oh no, maybe i was deceived by disinformation" and take steps to make sure you're less vulnerable in the future. Unfortunately, truth is now partisan, and I don't think you and I will be able to reach a shared truth about what Cuomo did or why. It's particularly disappointing because this is such a clean textbook example of a disinformation campaign.
Also, for what it's worth, I don't even like Cuomo. He just happens to be a legitimate victim of disinformation in this particular instance.