Did you know? The Patriot Post is funded 100% by its readers. Help us stay front and center in the fight for Liberty and support the 2024 Year-End Campaign.

May 18, 2020

Cuomo’s COVID-19 Response Failure

Another review of his order mandating that nursing homes accept coronavirus patients.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was hit with some well-deserved criticism after last week brought news that at least 5,400 COVID-19 deaths in the state have come from nursing homes. Back in March, in the early days of the China Virus pandemic, Cuomo issued an order mandating that nursing homes accept patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 rather than send them to hospitals. It was well known at the time that in Washington, one of the earliest states to experience the COVID-19 outbreak, nursing homes were hit especially hard. Cuomo’s mandate was counterintuitive and deadly.

Ironically, back in April, Cuomo labeled nursing homes as “ground zero” for the pandemic, but he also used that label to criticize those nursing homes. “If they cannot provide that care, then they have to transfer the person to another facility,” he said. “Those are the rules. They get paid to take care of a resident.” And yet the governor’s standing order required these same facilities to continue accepting infected patients, which resulted in a least 19 infected patients being sent from the hospital back to nursing homes.

The latest news is that New York officials have been fudging the statistics on the number of nursing-home patients that have died from the virus, as only deaths that occur at these long-term-care facilities are being recorded as nursing-home deaths. Any nursing-home resident who was infected at the facility and was then moved to a hospital and died within 24 hours has not been included in nursing-home death totals. New estimates of nursing-home deaths, including those sent to the hospital, add at least 1,700 to the total number. Cuomo’s order spread the virus to the most vulnerable.

Cuomo’s responses to the new criticism has been nothing but deflections. “People died. Older people, vulnerable people are going to die from this virus. That is going to happen despite whatever you do. You can have a situation where everyone did the right thing and everyone tried their best, and people still die,” he lectured. “Look, people rationalize death in different ways. I don’t think there was any logical rationale to say they would be alive today.”

Interestingly, New York data also indicates that, far from preventing the spread of COVID-19, Cuomo’s lockdown order did little to stop the spread at all. Some 66% of the new infections in the state came from people who were sheltering in place. Maybe Cuomo should have done more to focus on protecting and quarantining the most vulnerable rather than issuing a one-size-fits-all shutdown order.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.