New York lawmakers grill Cuomo's health commissioner over nursing homes

Politico ^ | 2/25/21 | Shannon Young

[Libloather]

**SNIP**

“At long last, will you and the Cuomo Administration admit to your culpability in these deaths and finally issue an apology to the thousands of families impacted?” asked Sen. Jim Tedisco (R-Glenville).

Zucker, who accused critics of pushing “a lot of fiction” around the order, argued that data supports the Department of Health’s July report which found thousands of Covid-19-related long-term care deaths in New York - and across the country - were largely driven by community spread from infected staff or visitors in the early days of the pandemic.

“There were 37,000 staff who ended up having Covid and they brought it in - inadvertently - at a time when we did not know about asymptomatic spread,” he said. “Remember, back then, we asked the international and national experts - we asked [Dr. Anthony] Fauci himself and he said, ‘you know, asymptomatic spread is not a driver of the pandemic’ - so they brought it in inadvertently and that’s how it spread.”

Zucker added that the March order was not “rescinded,” but that different guidance was issued. He also rejected claims that the administration engaged in a “cover-up” when it came to the release of long-awaited data regarding long-term care facility residents who died from Covid-19 in hospitals.

Cohen, meanwhile, echoed the governor’s longstanding arguments that there was a concern about the politicization of Donald Trump's Department of Justice after the DOJ announced that it would investigate the situation in New York. Cohen also asserted that gathering the data was a time-consuming and complicated process.

[Libloather]

Republicans want an apology.

[mewzilla]

Update...

Janice Dean is onto a new scent. Cuomo should be worried. Very worried.