Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo set to testify on COVID-19 nursing home policies

September 10, 2024

Massimiliano Finzi/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is set to publicly testify Tuesday before Congress on his administration’s nursing home policies during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hearing, before the Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, will see Cuomo defend his decision to allow COVID-19-positive patients back into nursing homes and long-term care facilities while the pandemic was underway.

Cuomo previously testified before the subcommittee during a closed-door hearing in June. Transcripts from that interview, as well as with high-ranking officials during Cuomo’s administration, will be released ahead of the public hearing.

“Andrew Cuomo owes answers to the 15,000 families who lost loved ones in New York’s nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic,” subcommittee Chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, said in a statement last week. “On September 10, Americans will have the opportunity to hear directly from the former governor about New York’s potentially fatal nursing home policies.”

In March 2020, as COVID-19 cases were surging, Cuomo issued an order requiring nursing homes to readmit all residents who were “medically stable” and returning after being hospitalized for the virus.

“No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” the order read.

It further stated that nursing homes were “prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”

At the time, Cuomo explained that the order would help expand hospital capacity to meet the demands of caring for the sickest COVID-19 patients. After facing criticism from nursing home advocates, however, the governor amended the order in May 2020, prohibiting hospitals from discharging patients to nursing homes unless they first tested negative for COVID-19.

Cuomo fought back against criticism of his policies and, in July 2020, a report from the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) stated that COVID-19 was introduced into nursing homes by infected staff, and that peak staff infections correlated with peak nursing home resident deaths. The report also found that “admissions policies were not a significant factor in nursing home fatalities.”

However, in January 2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report that found the NYSDOH had undercounted the number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 by as much as 50%, and failed to count in its official death tally nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 after being admitted to hospitals.

In 2022, Cuomo’s representative said the Manhattan District Attorney’s office would not file criminal charges in connection with the former governor’s handling of nursing home deaths during the pandemic.

Earlier this year, an independent investigation, commissioned by current New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, found that although Cuomo’s nursing home response policy was based on “the best available data at the time,” communication to the public was poor and caused anxiety for family members of nursing home residents.

“Even the most well-intentioned policy had unforeseen consequences in [New York state] nursing homes,” the report read.

Man left paralyzed at 19 drives car again for first time

Courtesy Ryley Hopper

(NEW YORK) — A man who was left paralyzed after diving into a swimming pool as a teenager was recently able to drive again for the first time, eight years after his injury.

Ryley Hopper, 27, got behind the wheel of a specially equipped van on Aug. 14, his first time driving since he was paralyzed from the chest down at the age of 19.

“It’s a very empowering, independent thing,” Hopper told ABC News’ Good Morning America, about reclaiming the freedom to drive again. “I wanted to want something … to find a purpose to attack head on.”

Hopper was a college freshman at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and enjoying a summer swim in his friend’s pool in 2016 when he flipped into the shallow end, hit the bottom and lost consciousness.

His friend, trained as a lifeguard, performed CPR on Hopper to keep him stable until the ambulance arrived.

The accident left Hopper with a life-altering C5-C7 spinal cord injury that resulted in paralysis from the chest down.

He spent nearly a month at Duke University Hospital, including four days in a medically induced coma, before being transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta for two months of intensive inpatient rehabilitation.

“In the beginning, I was figuring out what the future would look like … my first goal was to get back to school,” said Hopper, who prioritized returning to UNCW the following fall semester to complete his undergraduate and graduate finance degrees.

With his mother as his caretaker and a supportive community behind him, a couple years after entering the workforce, Hopper said he was ready to “attack this driving thing … and be more in control of my life.”

“It took a while to reset my mindset,” he said, but “minutes after being in the car, the butterflies went away.”

Hopper attributes spending time outside as a factor in his post-injury progress, and for him, driving is an extension of that.

“A lot of healing is done indoors — in and out of physicians’ offices — and the natural world isn’t always accessible,” said Hopper, who said he aspires to one day create a space for people with disabilities to participate in accessible outdoor activities and reconnect with nature.

When setting spinal cord injury recovery milestones, Hopper also underscores the importance of mental health and striving for personal growth.

“I’ve been given a unique perspective because of my injury, and I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the struggle I’ve been through,” he said.

For others dealing with a spinal cord injury, Hopper reminded them to not forget to find the silver lining.

“Find peace and serenity,” he said. “Once you realize that you’re in a position that grants you a unique perspective on life … it’s a kind of superpower in itself.”

What to know about polio vaccination campaign in Gaza after 1st first case in 25 years

Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images

(LONDON) — A mass polio vaccination campaign is underway in Gaza to inoculate children after the first case in 25 years was recently detected in the strip.

Several organizations — including the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health and other partners — began the campaign on Sunday in central Gaza, where the case was confirmed.

The WHO has sent more than 1 million vaccine doses with the goal of vaccinating more than 640,000 children under age 10. The campaign will be rolled out in three-day phases each in central, southern and northern Gaza, according to Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Palestinian territory,

The UN estimates that in 2022, polio vaccination coverage, conducted through routine immunization, was at 99%.

However, since the outbreak of the war, this percentage has fallen. According to the latest WHO-UNICEF routine immunization (WUENIC) report, the number is estimated to be at 89% in 2023 due to the number of newborns not vaccinated.

Israel has agreed to limited pauses in the fighting, for about six hours a day, to facilitate the campaign, according to the WHO.

Children will receive two drops of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), which has been used for outbreak response under the WHO’s Emergency Use Listing approval since March 2021.

“We are targeting 157,000 children under 10 [in central Gaza]. We will do it for three consecutive days and, if needed, we’ll add a day,” Peeperkorn said on Sunday.

The vaccination will target 138 different sites including hospitals, medical points, schools and community points — including water and food distribution points — according to the WHO.

Among those participating in the vaccination campaign is the medical nonprofit MedGlobal. Five of the organization’s medical treatment points in Gaza are ready to administer vaccines.

Dr. John Kahler, a pediatrician and co-founder of MedGlobal, who has been on multiple medical missions to Gaza, said temporary pauses are not enough to fix long-term systemic issues, but this proves they can happen for critical medical situations.

“First of all, it shows how collapsed the public health system is,” he told ABC News. “But it also shows that it is possible for both sides to come to some type of a temporary — but important — agreement to permit [vaccinations] to happen.”

UNICEF said during the first full day of the vaccination campaign, 72,600 children received a dose of polio vaccine.

Poliovirus was first detected in sewage samples from Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis — in central and southern Gaza, respectively — in mid-July, in tests conducted by the Ministry of Health in coordination with the United Nations.

“The presence of the virus that causes polio … represents a new health disaster,” the ministry said in a statement at the time. “There is severe overcrowding, a scarcity of available water and its contamination with sewage water, the accumulation of tons of garbage and the occupation’s prevention of the entry of hygiene materials, which creates a suitable environment for the spread of various epidemics.”

In mid-August, the Ministry of Health reported the first case of polio in 25 years in a 10-month-old child who had not been vaccinated. Doctors suspected polio after symptoms resembled the virus, which was confirmed in test conducted in Amman, the capital of Jordan.

Kahler said the true number of polio cases is likely much higher with many that have got undetected.

“If you really do have one case of paralytic polio, you have, by definition, hundreds or more,” he said. “Remember, 90% of polio is asymptomatic. So, this is why it spreads. It’s highly contagious…Given the breakdown in the infrastructure, there will be no way of knowing how many.”

Polio largely affects children under age 5 and can lead to paralysis or death. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there are about 341,000 children under the age of five in Gaza.

FDA authorizes 1st over-the-counter combo flu and COVID test outside of emergency use

Healgen

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the first over-the-counter combination COVID-19 and flu test outside of emergency use on Monday evening.

This means the Healgen Rapid Check COVID-19/Flu A&B Antigen Test is available without a prescription. The FDA said the test is for those who are experiencing respiratory symptoms.

While there are other over-the-counter combination tests currently available, this is the first to be marketed to consumers using the traditional approval pathway outside of a public health emergency.

The new combination test uses a nasal swab sample to deliver at-home results for COVID-19 and influenza in approximately 15 minutes.

Healgen’s test detects proteins from both SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19, and influenza A and B, which are the viruses that cause flu.

“As we enter this year’s annual flu season with respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 on many of our minds, our ability to detect these pathogens effectively and efficiently can be impactful on our daily lives,” said Dr. Michelle Tarver, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, in a statement. “Today’s authorization expands the options for individuals with respiratory symptoms to receive information about their health from the comfort of their home.”

“The FDA continues to take actions that support the development and availability of at-home tests for a variety of medical conditions,” the statement continued.

The test is for use by people 14 and older who can take their own sample, or those 2 and older, who have a sample taken by an adult, according to the federal health agency.

Data reviewed by the FDA found the test correctly identified 99% of negative and 92% of positive COVID samples. Additionally, the test correctly identified 99.9% of negative flu samples, and 92.5% and 90.5% of positive flu samples, respectively.

Like other over-the-counter COVID-19 antigen tests, the FDA says a positive test result likely means a patient is positive while a negative rest result may require a confirmation test.

However, people who test negative and continue to experience symptoms including cough, fever and shortness of breath should follow up with their health care provider, the FDA says. Similarity, the FDA says those who test positive should take appropriate precautions to avoid spreading either virus and should also follow up with their health care provider.