So Andrew Cuomo is now trying to blame Trump for a state directive he signed into action forcing nursing homes to accept covid patients, an action that is arguably responsible for over 5000 deaths from the virus. Now before Steve declares that I may as well start wearing a MAGA hat I've always considered myself a centrist libertarian and an issue voter rather than following political tribes. My problem here is that it's clear to me that in this case Cuomo is being a duplicitous lying coward and is trying to push all the blame on to Trump instead of taking responsibility for his own actions. This is even more reprehensible as this is still an election year and despite his claim to the contrary he has just politicised the entire thing.
Assuming the whole 'I was just following orders' argument had any merit New York is the only place where there have been over 5000 deaths in nursing homes attributed to covid so even if the CDC had been able to enact some kind of edict forcing states to make them accept covid infected patients then we would have seen a sharp increase across the entire country. In fact the CDC did issue guidelines on using alternative facilities in order to free up hospital beds and I've read both the guidelines and all three revisions of the ACS toolkit and they never mention using nursing homes in that manner, the only example they gave was the use of hotels. They did however say this about nursing homes:
Given their congregate nature and resident population served (e.g., older adults often with underlying chronic medical conditions), nursing home populations are at high risk of being affected by respiratory pathogens like COVID-19 and other pathogens, including multidrug-resistant organisms (e.g., Carbapenemase-producing organisms, Candida auris ). As demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a strong infection prevention and control (IPC) program is critical to protect both residents and healthcare personnel (HCP).
Facilities should assign at least one individual with training in IPC to provide on-site management of their COVID-19 prevention and response activities because of the breadth of activities for which an IPC program is responsible, including developing IPC policies and procedures, performing infection surveillance, providing competency-based training of HCP, and auditing adherence to recommended IPC practices.
The section on nursing homes and long term care facilities lists the standard infection control procedure guidelines that you would expect to see and that includes having new patients/residents where their covid status is unknown which you can read below:
Create a Plan for Managing New Admissions and Readmissions Whose COVID-19 Status is Unknown.
Depending on the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community, this might include placing the resident in a single-person room or in a separate observation area so the resident can be monitored for evidence of COVID-19. HCP should wear an N95 or higher-level respirator (or facemask if a respirator is not available), eye protection (i.e., goggles or a disposable face shield that covers the front and sides of the face), gloves, and gown when caring for these residents. Residents can be transferred out of the observation area to the main facility if they remain afebrile and without symptoms for 14 days after their admission. Testing at the end of this period can be considered to increase certainty that the resident is not infected.
Not one part of the guidelines says that nursing homes have to take covid patients, in fact they highlight the dangers of doing so. The directive forcing them to take said patients and therefore exposing vulnerable people to the virus was written into state legislature by Andrew Cuomo, Trump had nothing to do with that decision. In fact the separation of powers between State and Federal government as laid down in the constitution specifically states that the Federal Government is responsible for
Interstate commerce
Foreign trade and travel
National security
While State level government is responsible for all powers not given to the federal government and 'Police powers', these are powers exercised by the states to enact legislation and promulgate regulations in order to protect public health, welfare and morals and to protect the common good.
The CDC can issue guidelines regarding specific events but they can't make new laws, just enforce ones that have gone through the full legislative process and while they do have some regulatory authority it is to prosecute entities that fail to follow those respective laws. So even if the CDC and CMS had issued a directive stating that nursing homes had to take infected patients, something that (a)would be in direct breach of the Hippocratic Oath and (b)contradict guidelines they had already given so I'm more than inclined to call bullshit, it would only be a guideline so Cuomo could have easily said no.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8350813/Gov-Cuomo-defends-sending-patients-hospitals-nursing-homes-saying-following-Trump.htmlhttps://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/alternative-care-sites.htmlhttps://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/long-term-care.html
