The following is in response to the April 22, 2020 Kremer’s Corner: “Cuomo is king of the hill.”
Before anointing Cuomo king Mr. Kremer should read the following quotes:
“Several years ago, after learning that the Empire State’s stockpile of medical equipment had 16,000 fewer ventilators than the 18,000 New Yorkers would need in a severe pandemic, state public-health leaders came to a fork in the road.
They could have chosen to buy more ventilators to back up the supplies hospitals maintain. ¬Instead, the health commissioner, Howard Zucker, assembled a task force for rationing the ventilators they already had.
In 2015, that task force came up with rules that will be imposed when ventilators run short. Patients assigned a red code will have highest access, and other patients will be assigned green, yellow or blue (the worst), ¬depending on a “triage officer’s” decision.
In truth, a death officer. Let’s not sugar-coat it. It won’t be up to your own doctor.
In 2015, the state could have purchased the additional 16,000 needed ventilators for $36,000 apiece or a total of $576 million. It’s a lot of money, but in hindsight, spending half a percent of the budget to prepare for pandemic was the right thing to do.”
Guess who was Governor in 2015?
https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/cuomo-didnt-know-coronavirus-patients-are-being-sent-back-to-nursing-homes/
“New York’s health commissioner on Monday defended a directive that requires nursing homes to readmit residents who’ve tested positive for the coronavirus — as Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed he didn’t know the policy was in place.
Cuomo was asked about the state’s policy on admitting or readmitting to nursing homes people who’d tested positive for COVID-19.
“That’s a good question, I don’t know,” the governor said.
Cuomo’s startling admission came days after the state revealed last week that at least 3,316 people in nursing homes and adult care facilities had died of coronavirus at their residences or in hospitals across the state.
That tally — which officials have said is likely an undercount — included at least 2,056 deaths in New York City.
Updated statistics released Monday afternoon increased the death toll to 3,448 as of Sunday, with 2,105 in the Big Apple.”
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/22/841463120/in-new-york-nursing-homes-death-comes-to-facilities-with-more-people-of-color
“There’s one thing that distinguishes the nursing homes in New York that have reported patient deaths from COVID-19. According to an NPR analysis, they are far more likely to be made up of people of color.
NPR looked at 78 nursing homes in New York in which six or more residents have died of COVID-19. In one facility, 55 people have died as of April 20. Ten others report 30 or more deaths.
Seven of the 11 nursing homes with the highest number of deaths reported that 46 percent or more of their residents are “non-white.” Most of these “non-white” residents are black and Latin. At one facility, the Franklin Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Queens, which reported 45 deaths, 80 percent of the residents are a minority, including 47 percent who are Asian.”
In conclusion, based on Gov. Cuomo’s style of self-promotion and deportment, I believe the title of dictator, not King is more befitting.
Walter J. Jaworski
New Hyde Park
