WALSH: The Government Didn’t Need To Shut Down The Economy. It Just Needed To Shut Down Nursing Homes. But It Failed.

America’s Worst Mayor, Bill De Blasio, was asked this morning about the coronavirus crisis in the city’s nursing homes. De Blasio tried to pin the blame on the free market, saying that “a lot” of the nursing homes are “for profit organizations,” which, he claims, raises questions about “whether they put profit first.” But I wonder if the mayor can explain how greedy capitalists could possibly be responsible for the fact that state-run facilities failed to follow government protocols. A nursing home in Queens, operated by the Department of Health, reportedly didn’t isolate infected residents and kept roommates together even if one was suspected of having the virus.

But more to the point – and here’s a scandal that should be on the front page everywhere – the government in New York forced nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients. An unnamed executive at one facility says that the state sent body bags along with the first two COVID-19 patients they were mandated to admit. According to a New York Post report, 30 residents at that nursing home would go on to perish from the disease. The same executive says that Governor Andrew Cuomo “has blood on his hands.” It is hard to disagree with that assessment. While the national media continues to polish Cuomo’s shoes and call him a hero, he is apparently largely responsible for introducing the virus into the most vulnerable populations.