Checking in on nursing homes

Daily Point

Difficult questions, difficult answers

It was a tough morning for State Health Department Commissioner Howard Zucker.

And party lines seemed to dissolve during the State Legislature’s first virtual hearing on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on nursing homes, as Democrats and Republicans both asked tough questions and made pointed statements during Zucker’s testimony.

Start with State Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat who represents parts of Orange, Rockland and Ulster counties and chairs the Committee on Investigations and Government Operations, pushed Zucker about the data contained in the Health Department’s internal report released last month. Skoufis specifically sought detail on how many nursing home residents died of the coronavirus while in hospitals.

In response, Zucker said he was unable to provide a “specific number.” 

Then there was Sen. Gustavo Rivera, the Democratic chair of the chamber's health committee.

“It seems to me that patting ourselves on the back for victories is … far-fetched,” given the number of deaths in the state, especially in nursing homes, Rivera said, suggesting that there’s an effort in the state to make itself “look better.”

“That’s a problem, bro,” Rivera added. 

Zucker emphasized that the state didn’t want to double-count deaths — by providing a count of the total who died in hospitals, while also trying to capture those who came from nursing homes.  

But Assemb. Thomas Abinanti, also a Democrat, who represents parts of Westchester County, didn’t let Zucker off the hook, either. Abinanti focused on the need for nursing home visitation to make a comeback, noting that the Health Department’s own report emphasized that staff — not visitors — may have been responsible for the coronavirus transmission inside the homes.

As Zucker kept the hot seat, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed bills and prepared for his own news conference on Monday, when he focused on bars and restaurants, schools, and the economy, and criticized how the federal government is handling the pandemic. 

Nursing homes didn’t come up. Cuomo left that hot potato to Zucker.

—Randi F. Marshall @RandiMarshall

Talking Point

Friends in high places

It has been a busy start to August for Long Island’s hot CD1 and CD2 races. 

Former President Barack Obama included Democrat Jackie Gordon in his first wave of 2020 endorsements on Monday, the only Long Islander on the list and a potentially big boost in this congressional open-seat contest to replace Pete King in CD2.

Her Republican opponent, Andrew Garbarino, is getting bumped up to the highest level of the Young Guns recruitment program led by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy. 

In CD1, incumbent Lee Zeldin nabbed the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Democrat Nancy Goroff’s email list got a guest visit from new endorser Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who said that she was “committed to help Nancy and her team raise $10,000 TODAY toward their August goal.”

Both races will likely be extremely expensive and key barometers of how Republicans are faring in the suburbs, so expect the pace to continue over the three months until Election Day. 

—Mark Chiusano @mjchiusano

Pencil Point

Disappearing act

For more cartoons, visit www.newsday.com/cartoons

Quick Points

• President Donald Trump’s annual financial disclosure shows the Trump Organization reported at least $446.3 million in revenue in 2019, up more than 2% from 2018. What it does not show: How much of that revenue came from the U.S. government and the Republican Party.
• When refusing to answer a question is the same as saying yes: When intelligence officials say foreign actors are trying to compromise private communications of U.S. campaigns and political candidates, and President Donald Trump’s campaign won’t say whether it would accept such information on former Vice President Joe Biden.
• Since federal agents have begun withdrawing from Portland, protests there have been peaceful, as they largely were before federal agents were deployed there. So who exactly was inciting whom?
• On July 19, President Donald Trump told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace that he would sign a new health care plan into law within two weeks. That deadline was Sunday. And the new plan is exactly where every other GOP health care plan has been for the last 10 years: Nowhere.
• White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx says the U.S. has entered a “new phase” of the pandemic. If by “new phase” she means yet another iteration of the initial phase that has been raging somewhere since March, well, OK.
• Protests against masks as infringing on personal freedom are spreading around the world. And it’s true, you do have a right to kill yourself. You just don’t have the right to take someone with you.
• New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who left the Democratic Party last year to become a Republican, said Democrats “used to be more moderate.” So were Republicans.
• If President Donald Trump keeps sowing distrust of mail-in balloting and keeps some people home who worry about contracting COVID-19 at a polling spot, and if he starves the U.S. Postal Service of money needed to help it run efficiently, and if his loyalist now in charge of the post office keeps making changes that slow down the mail, Trump could turn his baseless prediction into a self-fulfilling prophecy: This election will be rigged.
• Vice President Joe Biden still has not named a vice presidential running mate and political insiders want to know why. But given that whatever Biden is doing is working in the polls and that his pick, whoever it is, will be targeted by President Donald Trump’s campaign in a way that could affect that dynamic, perhaps insiders should be saying: What’s the rush?

—Michael Dobie @mwdobie