The harder they fall
It’s been a plunging fall for Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, once complimented by like-minded members of the national media for his handling of the COVID-19 virus in his state. Today, though, he is seen in a much lesser light as deaths from the virus in state nursing homes continue to add up – the most of any state – after his directive that nursing homes had to accept patients with the virus.
Cuomo had the gall last week to try to pin the blame on President Trump, but a U.S. representative from New York and the state’s former governor reminded him where he was wrong.
Asked if he had regrets about his directive, the governor said the state followed the president’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance. Reporters, he said, should take their questions to Trump.
But as U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York, and former Republican former New York Gov. George Pataki reminded him, the CDC clearly stated that the placement of patients should be based on the ability of the accepting facility to accept them and keep them safe, and if they were unable to do that they should not admit them. Cuomo had said the nursing homes must admit them.