It has been almost four years since the Cuomo administration’s March 25th directive prevented nursing homes from refusing patients admission just because they had Covid. More than 9,000 active Covid patients were moved from NY hospitals into NY nursing homes early in the Pandemic. Tragically my brother Johnny was in short-term rehab in one of those nursing homes and several days later contracted Covid.

There were so many options other than sending them into nursing homes. I have no question that placing Covid-19 patients into facilities which were understaffed, unprepared, with poor infection control caused a greater number of deaths. I believe my dear brother was one of them. Johnny should still be here.