They’re taking it all the way to the top.
Republican lawmakers in the New York Assembly asked President Trump late Tuesday to force Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reveal the actual number of nursing home residents who died from the coronavirus during the early months of the pandemic.
State officials have publicly reported roughly 6,500 deaths from COVID-19 in long-term care facilities across the state over the last 10 months, but have refused to disclose the number of facility residents who passed away after they were taken to hospitals for emergency care.
“We write to you as a last-ditch effort for assistance to obtain the long sought after COVID-19 data New York families and good government groups have been seeking for months,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Trump on Tuesday evening.
“New York counts its COVID-19 deaths unlike any other state,” they said.
Cuomo critics and health care experts have ripped the governor and his state health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, for issuing a directive in March that required nursing homes to allow COVID-positive residents to return from hospitals if they were not in need of intensive care.
They argue the mandate helped to fuel outbreaks at long-term care facilities, which are home to the elderly and infirm — some of those most vulnerable to the deadly disease.
An Associated Press analysis of data indicates the count provided by the state of nursing home deaths may be grossly underreported. Some 323 nursing home residents died between early June and mid-July, according to the AP’s review of federal data — 65 percent higher than the 195 deaths tallied by the state in that same period.
If that rate is indicative of reporting disparities for the duration of the pandemic, it could account for thousands of additional coronavirus-linked deaths on top of the more than 6,400 the state has already confirmed or presumed in nursing homes.
Another group of numbers also suggests an undercount, the AP reported. State health department surveys show 21,000 nursing home beds are lying empty this year, 13,000 more than expected — an increase of almost double the official state nursing home death tally. While some of that increase can be attributed to fewer new admissions and people pulling their loved ones out, it suggests that many others who aren’t there anymore died.
The letter to Trump asks him to force the CDC to change its reporting standards for the deaths. The lawmakers sent a similar letter to the federal agency weeks ago, but said officials there did not heed their request.
“We’re hoping the White House can take executive action to implore the CDC to change reporting requirements. People who lost loved ones in nursing homes deserve answers,” said Assemblyman Kevin Byrne (R-Westchester).
Zucker told lawmakers in an August hearing that he would eventually release the information about nursing home residents who died in hospitals but claimed it was not yet available.
Since then, lawmakers and the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy have submitted FOIL requests and sued the state for refusing to release those figures. That suit is pending.
The White House and state health department did not immediately return requests for comment.