Calls for federal investigation into NY's COVID-19 nursing home deaths

NEW YORK - As the fallout from the Cuomo administration's handling of nursing homes continues, families of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 rallied in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday.

"Governor Cuomo can lie, spin, obfuscate all he wants but us families are never going away," said Tracy Alvino, whose father lived at a nursing home and died of the virus.

Alvino is a member of Voices for Seniors, which is calling for state and federal investigations of Cuomo's handling of nursing homes at the height of the pandemic, and its subsequent failure to accurately disclose nursing home deaths.

"We all want a proper investigation, subpoena powers," said Danielle Messina, whose father died of COVID-19 in a nursing home on Staten Island at just 70.

She is among those who believe a March 25 order by Cuomo for nursing homes to re-admit Covid positive patients from hospitals is what led to widespread infection.

"They sent him back to the nursing home [from the hospital], put him on his regular floor literally to die," Messina said.

The Governor has repeatedly denied that order led to increased spread of the virus, claiming 98% of nursing homes where patients were re-admitted already had the virus inside. Cuomo and state health officials maintain asymptomatic staff is responsible for the rapid spread.

The only mistake made, Cuomo's said, was delaying the release of data on nursing home deaths in late summer because officials were dealing with a federal request for data. His top aide, Melissa De Rosa, last week told lawmakers the administration "froze" fearing the feds would use the data against the state.

That followed a report from the Attorney General's office last month which found the death count was significantly undercounted because state officials were not including nursing home patients who died at hospitals.

Cuomo has stopped short of apologizing.

"People want answers and they weren't getting answers, and that's what I feel bad about," he said on a press conference call Wednesday. "Yes, there were conspiracy theories, yes it was politics, yes, it's Twitter madness, yes, people have their own agendas...but the net was the void, the misinformation and the pain it caused."

Family members, like Grace Colucci, who lost her father John Daly, don't buy it

"The 'void' was in his transparency," she said.

While the families held the demonstration outside the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District in Lower Manhattan, The acting U.S. Attorney in that office happens to be De Rosa's mother-in-law. Members of Voices For Seniors say they want the matter investigated by an outside independent body.