#Health czar Howard Zucker’s pathetic bid to clear himself on NY’s nursing home deaths

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New York state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker
ZUMAPRESS.com

State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker “reports” that his March 25 order forcing nursing homes to admit COVID-positive patients had nothing to do with the later deaths of thousands of residents from the virus. No one will buy this, no matter how much Zucker wasted on consultants.

Zucker and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have defended the order even after rescinding it May 10. Cuomo has instead blamed the deaths on home administrators’ greed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and even The Post.

Now add caregivers and loved ones to the list. “The data shows that the nursing home residents got COVID from the staff and presumably also those who visited them,” Zucker said Monday.

In fact, the report says 6,326 infected patients were transferred from hospitals to nursing homes from March 25 to May 8. How can any data show that was unrelated to the virus’ deadly spread in those homes?

Because you’re unlikely to spread the disease nine days after you first show symptoms, the report argues. Yet the median time for residents to be sent to homes from hospitals was nine days — so thousands were sent over while they likely were contagious.

Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens) is just one of those calling for an independent investigation, noting it’s “a conflict of interest for the health department to investigate its own poor decisions.” Right, but the real job here wasn’t to investigate but to whitewash.