Janice Dean Celebrates Report Slamming Cuomo For ‘Undercounting’ Nursing Home Deaths – ‘The Angels Won’
Rusty Weiss
|
Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean celebrated a scathing report from the New York State Attorney General accusing the Cuomo administration of “undercounting” and “obscuring” the number of nursing home deaths due to COVID-19.
The New York Times reports that attorney general Letitia James, a Democrat, has accused Cuomo and his administration, particularly officials at the State Health Department, of undercounting COVID deaths at nursing homes by as much as 50%.
State officials had more recently listed the number of deaths at 8,500.
If the 50% tally is accurate, the final number could end up being close to 13,000 seniors who died in nursing homes, or who were transported to hospitals and died after having contracted the infection there.
NEW: @TishJames releases scathing report on New York State Nursing Homes. Among the findings is that @HealthNYGov UNDERREPORTED nursing home deaths due to Covid by 50%. 20 facilities remain under investigation.
Big development here is James taking aim squarely at @NYGovCuomo
— Zack Fink (@ZackFinkNews) January 28, 2021
RELATED: Janice Dean Demands Cuomo Be Held Accountable For COVID Deaths
Cuomo Is Finally Being Called Out For His Role in the Nursing Home Scandal
The report must have been seen as a relief for Dean after fighting for months to reveal Governor Andrew Cuomo and his administration’s efforts to stonewall – or worse conceal – the actual numbers.
“Can’t wait to see [Cuomo] answer question on [AG James’] report about nursing homes,” she tweeted.
“It’s finally happening,” she added shortly thereafter. “[Cuomo] is going to have to answer for his role in the nursing home tragedy and the cover-up. The angels won.”
The angels may very well have been Dean’s in-laws, both of whom were victims of COVID-19, and in whom nursing homes in New York played a part.
It’s finally happening. @NYGovCuomo is going to have to answer for his role in the nursing home tragedy and the cover up. The angels won.
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) January 28, 2021
Dean wrote an op-ed column that accuses Cuomo of being responsible for her in-laws succumbing to the pandemic.
“My family didn’t have to die,” she wrote.
Cuomo’s Role in the Coronavirus Scandal
Governor Cuomo famously issued an executive order forcing nursing homes to take on patients that had tested positive for coronavirus.
The order prohibited facilities from requiring incoming patients “to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission,” and may have contributed to well over 10,000 deaths in New York.
Complicating the matter has been the Cuomo administration’s efforts in stonewalling actual data related to the nursing home deaths associated with COVID.
The CDC unfortunately made it optional for nursing homes to report COVID deaths in March, April and early May, when NY’s pandemic was at its worst.
But some homes did the right thing — and often gave numbers strikingly higher than reported by NYS DOH. https://t.co/6WSYZno25L pic.twitter.com/zIQOPExDLH
— Bill Hammond (@NYHammond) September 8, 2020
In the 76-page report released by James, the New York Times notes that “a survey of nursing homes found consistent discrepancies between deaths reported to the attorney general’s investigators and those officially released by the Health Department.”
One facility had almost four times as many deaths than were reported.
“In one instance, an unnamed facility reported 11 confirmed and presumed deaths to the Health Department as happening on-site through early August,” the Times writes.
“The attorney general’s survey of that same facility, however, found 40 deaths, including 27 at the home and 13 in hospitals.”
Your mistakes cost us the lives of our family members, @NYGovCuomo. But rest assured, we, the People will be strong in our fight for answers and accountability. And the more you try to silence us, the louder our voices will become. https://t.co/4d7PyCFCkr
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) January 4, 2021
New York has seen by far the most number of deaths due to the coronavirus in the country – currently sitting at over 42,000.
If the Attorney General report is fairly accurate, we’re looking at roughly 30% of all deaths in the Empire State being attributed to nursing homes who were forced to take on COVID-positive patients thanks to Cuomo.
It’s hard to imagine President Biden was seriously considering Cuomo as his Attorney General until recently.
You know who else should be getting flak in light of this report? Dr. Fauci, who said Cuomo and New York handled the pandemic “correctly.”
It was an inaccurate statement at the time.
It is wildly reprehensible in light of this new information.
— Rusty Weiss ?? (@rustyweiss74) January 28, 2021
Even harder to believe that Biden’s director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has actually praised Cuomo for his handling of the pandemic.
Fauci praised New York for handling their response to the coronavirus pandemic “correctly,” a wildly inaccurate claim at the time and even more startling following this new report.
Cuomo has been the subject of repeated criticism for his tone deaf actions during the pandemic.
Those actions have included selling a book on “leadership lessons,” creating and selling a cartoonish poster celebrating New York’s response, and even making a paper mache mountain to show how they ‘flattened’ the curve.
Seriously how much of an ego maniac do you have to be to make a poster of yourself while 30,000 New Yorkers died on your watch? Thousands of those were seniors. Every day I’m more grossed out by @NYGovCuomo. It’s really quite something.
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) July 14, 2020
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said months ago that Cuomo “should be impeached” for the way he handled the scandal involving nursing homes.
This new report seems to indicate he should consider resigning at the very least.