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Two members of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s inner circle threatened Nursing Home Association officials with fines and license revocations during a heated emergency call about COVID-19 vaccinations – even if it was based on misinformation, sources told the Post appeal.
The appeal, which took place earlier this month, came as Cuomo faced an ongoing review of his response to the nursing home health crisis, as well as allegations he was promoting a toxic work environment where bullying behaviors permeate the senior ranks.
State Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker and Beth Garvey, the governor’s special advocate, used the call to threaten nursing home operators for failing to collect shipments of vaccine they allegedly ordered – only to make it appear that their criticisms were based on inaccurate information, according to the sources of the call.
“Why the exaggerated threat? Why wasn’t it a phone call from “what you guys hear and are there issues getting the vaccine out?” A source said. “You call people without warning, you start threatening licenses and penalties – is that your starting position?” The first time I heard something was wrong was on that call. Before that? Nothing.”
At 12:54 p.m. on March 17, representatives of nursing home associations across the state received an email from state health officials asking them to participate in a “high” priority appeal. at 13h.
The email did not reveal what justified the urgency – but when representatives joined the call, Zucker and Garvey told them their data showed hundreds of homes had requested shipments of the vaccine. against the coronavirus for staff and residents, so as not to recover the doses.
“What are my options here?” Zucker asked, according to the audio from a 26-minute portion of the call obtained by The Post. “There is the option of fines. There is the option of law enforcement. There is the possibility of shaming everyone and saying, “I can’t believe people don’t do this.
“I’m not trying to be difficult with all of you,” Zucker continued. “But at the end of the day, they are residents of these nursing homes and vaccines are set aside for them, and nursing home administrators have to pick them up and put them in the arms of these residents, as well as Staff. Anything that is shy is simply irresponsible.
Garvey picked up where Zucker left off.
“It is absolute malpractice to have these vaccines available and not to have picked them up,” she said. “I think every medical director of these establishments should feel a personal risk for their medical licenses. We obviously have tools at our disposal.
“All options are on the table, with regard to issuing emergency regulations, imposing fines and penalties,” she continued. “We literally bent over backwards to try and see if nursing homes would do the right thing. I think our only recourse at this point is to try to clean it up, because we have a responsibility. “
Garvey went on to say that “this time” the state would act “to resolve our liability” by delivering the vaccines to households that had not picked them up.
The state concluded the call by promising to circulate a list of households that have not collected their batches of vaccines, and by giving representatives of the association until 5 p.m. to call the establishments and tell them to recover. their doses under penalty of fines.
“They call you on that emergency phone call and immediately start threatening people?” Is that how it starts? an incredulous source who participated in the call told the Post. “It wasn’t the culmination of weeks of working with unresponsive people. It was right out of the box: Attack. “
After receiving the state’s list of more than 400 facilities that allegedly left their vaccine requests unanswered, the source called homes within their association – and found the state’s data to be misleading.
Representatives from some homes said that while they may have submitted the required counts to the state for their unvaccinated residents and staff, that didn’t mean they needed vaccines aside, the source said. .
Other homes said they have already partnered with a pharmacy for their exceptional vaccine needs, have clawed back their state allowances, or just don’t need the supplies.
As of March 29, 77 percent of nursing home residents and 56 percent of nursing home staff statewide had been vaccinated, state data showed.
The statewide deployment process has been marred by periodic issues, including vaccine shortages and hiccups at the federal level during the transition from former President Donald Trump to President Biden.
A second source on the appeal also questioned the guns approach – especially since the state never bothered to make a follow-up appeal, as Zucker and Garvey have said. announced on March 19.
“It took people by surprise and I don’t think there is a legal basis for the threat,” Interior said. “We kept going through the list and seeing what we could do to help, but we didn’t hear from the ministry.”
The DOH state defended its hardball approach.
“The reality is that some retirement homes still fail to protect New Yorkers,” spokesman Gary Holmes said in a statement. “After the federal nursing home vaccination program ended, the state made it clear to nursing homes that they had an obligation to vaccinate residents and staff in the future and offered to reserve them. specific allowances.
“We made repeated calls, determined if they could do the injections themselves or if they needed a third-party provider, and we asked them daily for 6.5 weeks how many doses they needed.” Holmes continued. “For some inexplicable reason, hundreds of nursing homes are leaving vaccine doses on shelves – these failures border on professional misconduct, which is why we have deputized for regional hospitals to take over.”
The Cuomo Department and Administration have come under fire for a myriad of issues throughout the pandemic with regard to nursing homes, starting with an infamous March 2020 directive banning nursing homes from refusing residents. on the sole basis of a diagnosis of coronavirus.
In January, a damning report released by state attorney general Letitia James found that the state may have underestimated the death toll among nursing home residents by 50%.
The following month, Cuomo’s aide Melissa DeRosa was captured by audio acknowledging to Democratic state lawmakers that the administration had obscured the true death toll because it feared a federal government investigation.
And this month, it was alleged that during the early days of the pandemic, Cuomo had organized then rare coronavirus tests for relatives and members of his entourage – as his administration rejected requests for testing for some. retirement homes.
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