Byrne Comments on Attorney General Letitia James’ Nursing Home Report

New York may have undercounted COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents by thousands, the NY state attorney general charged in a report Thursday that dealt a severe blow to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's repeated claims that NY state is doing better than other states in protecting its most vulnerable. The report found an undercount of over 50%, backing up the findings of an Associated Press investigation from last year. 

Assemblyman Kevin Byrne, who has been trying for months to get the data regarding the nursing home fatalities for months even wrote to President Trump in mid-December and President Biden just last last week for assistance in getting the data, responded by releasing the following statement:

"For months, I've been working with colleagues and advocates seeking missing information from Governor Cuomo's Department of Health so we can assess the full devastation that COVID-19 had within New York's nursing homes after the DOH issued a now infamous government mandate on March 25th prohibiting nursing homes from denying COVID-19 patients in their facilities. To date, DOH still has not provided the full number of COVID-19 deaths from nursing homes, because unlike other states, New York does not include the number of residents who were infected at a nursing home and later died at a hospital.

I've participated in legislative hearings and hosted bipartisan forums where we asked for this information, only to be denied. Good government groups have submitted FOIL requests and even filed litigation against the state in an attempt to acquire this information, without success. I've written to the CDC and even solicited assistance from both former President Trump and current President Biden, with no response from our former or current Commander in Chief.

Governor Cuomo has called our efforts and the efforts of other advocates "ugly" and "political." While our team and I continue to review Attorney General Letitia James' report, it's already clear it still lacks the data we need - the same data that shockingly the AG, our state's top law enforcement officer, apparently did not get from the DOH. It lacks the additional transparency and accountability New Yorkers demand, but it does at least confirm and validate that our concerns are indeed legitimate and nonpartisan. It also confirms that the DOH had conspicuously underreported fatalities from nursing facilities - possibly by as much as 50% according to a survey cited in the AG’s report. Furthermore, it affirms that government mandates 'requiring the admission of COVID-19 patients into nursing homes may have put residents at increased risk in some facilities and may have obscured the data available to asses that risk.'

I continue to support legislative efforts that would compel the DOH to release this data by subpoena. So much time has already passed that we're now approaching a point where many of these grieving families may have difficulty trusting the DOH regardless. This is another reason why now more than ever we need a full, independent investigation into what happened at our nursing homes. Anyone working to cover-up malfeasance that caused the death of our fellow New Yorkers must be exposed.

Assemblyman Kevin Byrne is the ranking member of the Assembly Health Committee and represents the 94^th Assembly District, including portions of Westchester and Putnam Counties.