HIGHER ED TODAY
BRONX TIMES R 4 EPORTER, APRIL 24-30, 2020 BTR
Ocasio-Cortez wants COVID nursing
homes released to the public
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
speaks during a campaign rally for Senator
Bernie Sanders at Venice Beach in Los
Angeles, California, U.S., December 21, 2019.
REUTERåS/Monica Almeida
government can’t adequately respond and
protect older Americans and individuals
with disabilities who rely on these facilities.
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BY JASON COHEN
Elected offi cials are clamoring for coronavirus
cases at nursing homes and longterm
care facilities nationwide to be published,
as nursing home deaths represent
25 percent of all COVID-19 fatalities in New
York.
Last week, Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez joined 77 of her House
colleagues in sending a letter to the Trump
administration asking them to work with
states, localities and private labs to collect
and publicly report data on the number of
long-term care residents affected by the coronavirus,
including cases and fatalities.
According to the New York State Department
of Health, as of April 19, 3,448 people
have died from COVID-19 at nursing homes
and long term care facilities, including 556
in the Bronx. Governor Cuomo has issued
an executive order requiring that the NYS
DOH-licensed facility shall notify family
members or next of kin for all residents if
any resident tests positive for COVID-19, or
if any resident suffers a COVID-19 related
death, within 24 hours of such positive test
result or death.
“Without understanding the scope and
impact of the pandemic within long-term
care facilities, the administration and the
congress lack essential information to adequately
respond and protect older Americans
and individuals with disabilities who
rely on these facilities to survive and are
particularly at risk for COVID-19,” Ocasio-
Cortez said.
The only federal data available is the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s
March 30 estimate that at least 400 long-term
care facilities have COVID-19 cases. All information
has come from journalists who
are reporting at least 3,000 nursing home
residents have died and that at least 2,300 facilities
across over 37 states have cases. However,
the actual numbers are likely higher.
In the letter, Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues
emphasized the specifi c vulnerability
of older Americans and individuals with
disabilities living in long-term care facilities.
They stressed that the CDC is failing to
collect and publicly report data on the number
of residents and long-term care facilities
that have been affected by COVID-19. Without
understanding the impact it has having
on those places, the offi cials said that the
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Before COVID-19, infections already
caused as many as 3 million illnesses and
almost 400,000 deaths in nursing homes and
other long-term care facilities each year.
“Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of
CDC’s National Center for Immunization
and Respiratory Diseases, has said that
‘people who are higher risk for severe disease
and death are those who are older
and with underlying health conditions,”
the letter states. “Publicizing this vulnerability
is necessary but not suffi cient. It
must be complemented by data collection
around how COVID-19 is spreading in congregate
communities where these individuals
are heavily concentrated and where
history suggests they are at particular
risk.”
The letter closed by urging the government
not to leave older Americans, individuals
with disabilities, veterans and all
those living in nursing homes behind in
their coronavirus response.
“Our national attempts to slow, contain,
and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus
must not ignore older Americans,
individuals with disabilities, veterans and
all those living in nursing homes and congregate
living settings,” the letter said.
“We must not leave any person behind.”
The steps we take to guide The City University
of New York through the COVID-19
crisis are born out of CUNY’s historic mission
to support our students, promote equity
and make sure the most vulnerable are not
excluded from the learning process.
We see who the coronavirus is attacking
in disproportionate numbers — it’s those
who come from our most diverse neighborhoods,
the very communities that form the
backbone of this University.
The principled imperative to make sure
that no one is left behind has set the framework
for CUNY’s decision-making from the
moment I assumed the role of Chancellor.
As I approach my one-year anniversary
on May 1, I couldn’t be prouder of the
work we have done over the last 12 months to
honor the founding values of this University,
a template of opportunity and inclusion that
led us most recently to announce the Chancellor’s
Emergency Relief Fund on April 8 to
provide an urgent lifeline to CUNY students
facing financial strain amid COVID-19.
Launched with $3.25 million including
$1 million each from the Carroll and Milton
Petrie Foundation and the James and Judith
K. Dimon Foundation, and $500,000 from
Robin Hood, the Fund has enabled us to begin
issuing grants of $500 each to thousands
of CUNY students in the first CUNY-wide
student assistance program of its kind. The
first checks were delivered this week. (Individual
contributions can be made at cuny.
edu/emergencyfund.
With support from Governor Cuomo,
CUNY last month invested $12 million to
quickly purchase thousands of laptops and
tablets, without which a sizable number
of our students would have been unable to
make the transition to distance learning and
move forward with their courses.
We have broadened CUNY’s record of
public service from participating in relief
work in Puerto Rico to collecting and distributing
vital personal protective equipment
for health workers and helping to create
face shields from campus 3D printers.
We continue to fill our ranks with pioneering
leaders, individuals like S. David
Wu, the incoming president of Baruch,
who will be the first Asian-American college
president at CUNY. He will be joined
by Robin L. Garrell, newly appointed president
of the Graduate Center; Frank H. Wu,
tapped to lead Queens College and CUNY’s
second Asian-American college president;
and Daisy Cocco De Filippis, who will be
interim president of Hostos Community College
and the first Dominican woman to serve
as a CUNY college president. I am also proud
to have built a cabinet of tested leaders representative
of the City we serve.
As I joined a video conference on April
13 to cheer the inaugural graduating class
of the CUNY School of Medicine, I was reminded
of the school’s mission to address
health care disparities in underserved areas.
These newly minted MDs are a perfect
match for the moment as they graduate early
and embark on their careers at a time of unprecedented
demand, a shining embodiment
of the University’s mission to safeguard the
most vulnerable while creating social mobility
for our graduates.
I also have no doubt that the road to recovery
of New York City’s economy and public
health goes through CUNY. I’m proud to
see, for example, CUNY staff already working
with government and health leaders,
taking steps to train and prepare the thousands
of social tracers we will need in the
months to come.
It all underscores a truth about CUNY,
which I knew to be true 12 months ago when
I had the privilege to become chancellor, and
continues to guide me today: The ground beneath
us may shift, but our commitment to
the equity, inclusion and excellence needed
to sustain New York City’s standing as a
world-class city will never, ever waver.
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