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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Holds Press Conference. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired February 15, 2021 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:00]

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The experts were projecting that our problem and our critical need was hospital capacity. We sat here every day with the hospitalization chart.

We were looking at up to 140,000 people hospitalized. We have less than 50,000 hospital beds. That is the calamity. Remember, March 25, that's right when the New York City Health and Hospitals, Elmhurst Hospital collapsed. It was national news. I remember it like yesterday.

And we're watching the TV every night and watching Italy collapse and people die because they can't get into a hospital. We're watching China with a hospital capacity issue, where they were building thousands of new hospital beds. That's what was going on.

That's why the CDC and that's why CMS made those decisions. And at the time, CDC, CMS, they were White House task forces. There were daily briefings. Everyone was focused on this issue. This was not a little issue. All the best minds were looking at it.

Fact: Of the 613 nursing homes, three -- we have 613 nursing homes in the state -- 365 received the person from a hospital. Of the 365 that received a person from this March 25 guidance, which was then superseded in May, 98 percent of those 365 already had COVID in their facility.

COVID did not get into the nursing homes by people coming from hospitals. COVID got into the nursing homes by staff walking into the nursing home when we didn't even know we had COVID, staff walking into a nursing home even though they were asymptomatic, because the national experts all told us you could only spread COVID if you had symptoms.

And they were wrong. COVID may have been brought into a nursing home because visitors brought it in and didn't know they were contagious, because the guidance was you can only be contagious if you have symptoms, if you're sneezing, if you're coughing. That turned out to be wrong. That's how COVID got into the nursing homes; 98 percent of the people who took a person back from a hospital who was probably no longer contagious already had it in the facility. And they signed and agreed that they could handle it, because they

already had people who are COVID in the nursing home. If you look at the rate of death before the March 25 order and after the order was rescinded, the rate of death is the same.

By the way, if you look at the rate of death in the nursing homes, in the spring overall and in the second surge, the winter-fall surge, the rate of death is the same. These decisions are not political decisions. They're all made on the best information the medical professionals have at the time.

And in New York, we talked to the best experts on the globe. And I have said to the people the state many times nobody's been here before. Nobody knows for sure. COVID is new. They're all giving you their best advice at the time.

And these are really quality people, Dr. Osterholm, Dr. Fauci, all the main institutes that were giving advice to the nation. We had people come from the World Health Organization who dealt with China, who came to Albany literally to advise us.

We're blessed to have Dr. Howard Zucker as our health commissioner. He's trained at Harvard, UPenn, Johns Hopkins, served at HHS, WHO, NIH. He teaches at Columbia and Yale University. If we had to pay him what he was worth, we couldn't afford it.

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And he gave his best advice on the information that he had at the time. I would trust Dr. Zucker with my mother's care. That's why I trust him with your mother's care. I wouldn't have anyone as the health commissioner who I wouldn't trust with my mother. And that's why I trust him with your mother.

To be clear, all the deaths in the nursing homes and in the hospitals were always fully, publicly and accurately reported. The numbers were the numbers, always. People did request information beyond the place of death, not just where they -- how many in a nursing home, not just how many in a hospital.

They did request different categorizations beyond those counts. How many people died, who were in a nursing home, but then went to a hospital? How many people died, who were in a hospital, but then went back to a nursing home? How do you count presumed COVID deaths?

Everyone was busy. Everybody was here every day. We're in the midst of managing a pandemic. There was a delay in providing the press and the public all that additional information. There was a delay.

What did we learn from this entire situation? What are we still learning? There are hospitals that performed well and there are hospitals that performed less well. We still see hospitals performing less well.

When you look at those vaccination numbers, hospitals with the same demographics of work force in the same region, with different vaccination rates of their staff, that's indicia of performance of those hospitals. There are nursing homes that performed well, and there are not nursing homes that did not perform as well.

We have to learn from it, and we have to correct it before we have another surge and another pandemic. And, by the way, we are going to have another pandemic. As I have said here, I would plan on it. And, yes, this was never seen before. And, yes, hospitals had to deal with something they never had seen before.

And, yes, nursing homes had to deal with something they had never seen before. But they will see it again. And now we have to learn from it before it happens again.

Our focus, I believe, is going to be on the for-profit nursing homes, hospitals, low-performing hospitals, but also in the for-profit nursing homes. I have long believed that there's a tension in a for- profit nursing home, because those institutions are trying to make money.

If you're trying to make profit, it's too easy to sacrifice patient care. Everything becomes one of the other. Do you want to hire more staff, or do you want to make more profit? Do you want to buy more PPE and stockpile more PPE, or do you want to make more profit? Do you want to buy new equipment, new beds, new sheets, new furniture, invest in the facility, or do you want to make more profit?

That tension is a problem. And that has to be resolved legislatively, because I don't want to leave it to these for-profit owners to decide what's right, what's wrong. Let's learn these lessons. We have to implement hospital reform and nursing reform. And we have to do it in this budget cycle.

COVID isn't done with us. Implement the lessons now. And we're going to propose them in the 30-day amendments.

If you're a for-profit nursing home, I believe you -- it should be mandated how much you put back into the facility and how much profit you can make. I believe that. Nursing home -- hospitals that have these issues, they have to improve, and we have to take it into consideration when there's a surge.

If there's an influx into hospitals, not all hospitals can handle it equally. And that's why you saw some hospitals fail.

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If you could do it all over again, just rewind the tape -- I understand the public had many questions and concerns. And the press had many questions about nursing homes primarily. And I understand that they were not answered quickly enough. And they should have been prioritized and prioritized those requests sooner. I believe that.

I understand the reasons. I understand that there was a lot going on. Everybody was working 24 hours a day. Everybody was overwhelmed. We were in the midst of dealing with a pandemic and trying to save lives. They were answering DOJ. And nursing homes and the hospitals were also

in the middle of hell and the middle of a pandemic. And they were scrambling. And they were managing the crisis. I understand all of that.

But the void we created by not providing information was filled with skepticism and cynicism and conspiracy theories, which furthered the confusion. Nature abhors a vacuum. So does the political system, you don't provide information, something will provide the information.

Most of all, the void we created allowed disinformation. And that created more anxieties for the families of loved ones. I have had hundreds of conversations. People couldn't get into the facility to see their loved one. They couldn't get them on the phone. They couldn't get staff on the phone to get answers.

They were powerless. They were helpless. They were literally physically removed and isolated. Loved ones died alone. Loved ones died alone. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters died alone. It was horrific. It was horrific.

And then the void in information that we created started misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories. And now people have to hear that. And they don't know what is the truth. The truth is, everybody did everything they could. The truth is, you had the best medical professionals and advice on the globe.

The truth is, it was in the middle of a terrible pandemic. The truth is, COVID attacks senior citizens. The truth is, with all we know, people still die in nursing homes today. People still die every day. We're testing the staff twice a week. There's no visitation. People still die.

You would have to hermetically seal a nursing home. They actually tried this in France, where the staff lived in the nursing home. Anybody can bring it in. A delivery man brings it in. The heating repairman brings it in. The food service brings it in. A staff person goes home, has -- meets with their family, someone in the family has it, staff member comes back, the staff member brings it in.

Even when you're testing twice a week, twice a week, you will get people who have it and you will miss them in the twice a week. That is the reality.

But not providing the information creates the void. The void allowed misinformation and conspiracy. And now people are left with the thought of, did my loved one have to die? And that is a brutal, brutal question to pose to a person.

And I want everyone to know, everything was done. Everything was done by the best minds in the best interests.

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And the last thing that we wanted to do, the last thing that I wanted to do was to aggravate a terrible situation. There is no good answer when you lose a loved one. I lost my father years ago. I still go through it over and over and over again. What should I have done? What could I have done? What should I have said to the doctor?

I probably always will. The last thing I wanted to do was to aggravate that for anyone.

With that, let's take questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Governor.

If you would like to ask a question, please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your window. We will take a brief moment to compile the Q&A roster.

Governor, your first question comes from Steve Burns at WCBS 880.

Steve, your line is now open. Please unmute your microphone.

QUESTION: Governor, can you hear me?

CUOMO: Hi you, Steve. How you doing, buddy? Happy Presidents Day.

QUESTION: Hey, I'm good. Same to you and everyone there. Thank you.

A couple of questions for you first regarding the nursing home information. Given that the explanation has been that there was the DOJ request that had to be handled first, the legislature, I have seen a few tweets from some lawmakers saying basically, why didn't DOH inform the legislature that they had this DOJ request and that they couldn't handle the lawmakers' requests at the same time?

Secondly, on subways, I know the MTA's request for an additional 1,000 officers also coincides with this police reform initiative. And I'm sure a lot of those initiatives will have to do with mental health, police responding to mental health situations. Do you feel like it's the right move to send another 1,000 officers into the MTA system to primarily deal with people having mental health problems?

CUOMO: Yes, Steve, good question. Let me -- two questions.

First one, both houses were told. The state legislators are wrong. Both houses were told that we had the DOJ request and we were going to give precedent to a DOJ request. They were both told.

And, yes, we gave the Department of Justice request precedence over the state legislators' request. True. Federal government took precedence over the state legislators' requests. I know the state legislators. I have spoken to them. They said, well, we're just as important as the Department of Justice.

I understand their point of view. We gave precedence to the Department of Justice. We told the Assembly that. We told the Senate that. And that's what we did.

And we're also in the midst of managing a pandemic. And Dr. Zucker is here every day, and Dr. Zucker is here every night at midnight, and Dr. Zucker is dealing with the hospitals, et cetera.

But, yes, we prioritized DOJ over the state legislature. And that's what they focused on. And forget, not -- besides the state legislature. There were people requests. There were press requests that were not answered on a timely basis.

And that created the void that I'm talking about. And then, once you create a void, people spread disinformation, this conspiracy theory, this conspiracy theory, they're not giving you this information because of this, because of this, because of this.

And if you lost a loved one, and you're hearing all these theories and all this negativity, then you say, maybe my father didn't have to die.

And that's the unfortunate circumstance.

But short answer, Steve, they did know. They did know. They were told: Assembly and Senate, we have the Department of Justice. We're giving them precedents.

On the police reform, I believe you need more public safety in the subway stations. I believe you need better safety, public safety, in the city overall. I believe you need better public safety in cities, writ large, overall. You focus on New York City.

We have had situations in Rochester where a 9-year-old girl was pepper-sprayed. You have situations in Buffalo where they knocked the protester to the ground. He hit his head. He has ongoing damage. It was on videotape. It was brutal.

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You have public safety issues nationwide, George Floyd.

All I'm saying to New York City is, you figure it out. You figure it out. You have community tension, where they don't trust the police. You have NYPD tension, where they feel they can't do their job. That's not going to work until you reconcile that relationship.

And it has to be reconciled, Steve. It doesn't happen on its own. You're going to have to have a collaborative that does that. Are many localities talking about taking public safety and breaking it down and saying, well, if you have mental health issues, then deal with it as a mental health issue, and rather than just the police?

An answer to every situation may not be a police officer. It may be a mental health professional. When the MTA asked for 1,000 police, that's all there is to ask for now. If they come up with a new public safety plan, and they say, look, we're going to have mental health experts, and they're going to deploy to mental health-related complaints, fine. Then that sounds right and that sounds sound.

And if they come up with a different public safety strategy, then fine. Fit that to the subway station. But right now, all you have are police. There are no mental health experts to request, right?

But if they develop that in the plan, I'm sure the MTA will say, fine, just send me people who are responsive to the problem.

QUESTION: Real quick on the nursing home data. Was there not the capacity in DOH to fulfill both the DOJ request and the legislature's request at the same time?

CUOMO: They focused on the DOJ request. Steve, they were dealing with everything at the time.

Remember, when you wake up in the morning, job one for the past year has been dealing with the crisis of the moment, right, dealing with whatever the issue is. Today, it's variants of interests. Today, it's sorting out the vaccination system.

Every day, it has been something. And that was given priority. In retrospect, should we have given more priority to fulfilling information requests? In my opinion, yes. Yes. And I think that's what created the void.

But do I understand the pressure that everybody was under? Yes, I understand that also. It's not like people were in the South of France, right? It's not like people were on vacation. They were here every day. And fulfilling the information was not -- fulfilling, for example, the state legislators' request was not given a priority.

The DOJ request was given a priority. That is a decision that was made. But it was informed -- the houses were both informed. They can't say they didn't know, Steve. You asked me for an interview. I say, I can't do your interview now because I have to do XYZ interviews. They knew.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, next up, we have David Evans from WABC TV.

David, your line is now open. Please unmute your microphone.

CUOMO: Dave, excuse me.

One issue. Beth (ph) was adding something. And then we will go to Dave.

Go ahead, Beth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

So, the August 26 response -- or August 26 letter to the state was actually publicized by the DOJ with a press release and was widely reported in the papers as well. So, irrespective as to whether or not we communicated with the legislature, which we did, anyone who was following the press coverage at the time would have seen their press release related to issuing this letter to the four states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York widely covered.

CUOMO: Yes.

So, the point is, Dave, if I might, the legislature knew fully well that we had a request from the Department of Justice in August. It was in the press that we received it in August. It was in the press that we received the second one in October.

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We literally read about it in the paper ourselves. And they knew, because they were told, that that was getting precedence over dealing with the state legislative requests, but that we would get to the state requests, but we needed to focus first on the DOJ requests.

Dave Evans.

QUESTION: Hey, Governor, can you hear me?

CUOMO: I can hear you.

QUESTION: Hey, I got my vaccine this morning, so I can thank you for that.

But I wanted to, for just a second, turn back to the nursing home for a second. So, what you're saying is, all of these calls for investigations from the Department of Justice, what both Republicans and Democrats in Albany are asking for, you see this as toxic political payback.

And the second thing that goes with that is then, what you talked about with your executive powers, this story that's out there this afternoon of negotiations ongoing about the legislature could do something holding your feet to the fire on that in order to get something on the budget, I mean, talk about raw politics. That seems to smack of it.

CUOMO: Yes, two things.

The Department of Justice had what's called the request for information, not an investigation. The second letter, you could construe from the Department of Justice to be talking about an investigation of private nursing homes, right?

There are private nursing homes that are private nursing homes. The state doesn't run them. They're just private nursing homes. And the letter from the Department of Justice asked information about the private nursing homes, because they were looking at the private nursing homes.

But they--

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: -- nursing homes.

CUOMO: I'm sorry.

QUESTION: I'm sorry. Go ahead.

CUOMO: So -- but my point is, we then didn't respond to the New York state legislature's requests because we were -- and we told them we're going to deal with the Department of Justice first, also, by the way, because we were dealing with managing the pandemic, right? Everything takes time.

And we were dealing with managing the pandemic, but we told the state legislature we would get to their requests. They come back into session in January, this past January. We said we would get to their requests.

The -- you cannot, Dave -- it's -- raw politics is one thing. This is New York. We thrive on raw politics, right? You can't use -- legally, you can't use an investigation to leverage a person in another matter. You can't use a subpoena or the threat of a subpoena or the threat of an investigation to leverage a person to do something else.

That's illegal. And that's just illegal. It's illegal for anyone to do it. As a lawyer, you get debarred for doing that. But that's a crime. That's not raw politics.

QUESTION: Next question, operator?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, next up, we have Denis Slattery from "The Daily News."

Denis, your line is now open. Please unmute your microphone.

CUOMO: Denis Slattery.

QUESTION: Yes, Governor, can you hear me?

CUOMO: Yes, sir.

QUESTION: All right, great.

So, I have two questions. Just going back to the DOJ request, it was not initially a probe. It was a request for information. But the initial one from August was a very narrow scope, only asking about state-run facilities.

I'm just curious when you informed the legislative leaders about your response to that and how that would slow down your responding to the state legislators' questions that were posed earlier that month.

CUOMO: The first request was for public nursing homes. The second request was private nursing homes. We told the legislature we had the request. We told them we gave them -- gave that request precedence.

More than anything, it was just a capacity issue. Remember, at the same time, we're managing the pandemic. That's what everybody was doing. And these things all take time. And the number one priority was saving people's lives every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Governor--

CUOMO: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

If I could just add on top of that, so, we received this inquiry on August 26.