October 28, 2025 • 48 mins
With the NYC mayoral race heating up, many are wondering how New Yorkers could vote for the democrat socialist Zohran Mamdani. Well, this story goes a long way into explaining why.
When should we stop listening to the experts? To find the answer, we follow the story of how experts guided NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s shocking nursing home policy during the COVID-19 outbreak.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is Red Pilled America. With the New York City's
mayor's race heating up, many are wondering how New Yorkers
could vote for the Democrat socialist so ranmom Donnie Well.
This story goes a long way into explaining why many
from the Big Apple are rejecting the state's former governor,
Andrew Cuomo. It was originally broadcast on May twenty second,
twenty twenty and if you want access to our entire
(00:24):
back catalog ad free, please visit Redpilled America dot com
and click join in the top menu. Support what you
love or it goes away. Throughout the coronavirus hysteria, there's
been one phrase that's become a staple in our news feeds,
and that is listen to the experts.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
President Trump said today he would like to reopen the
country by easter.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Or what's your response?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
He should stop talking and start listening to the medical experts.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
And if this president wants to be a wartime president,
he needs to stop vascillating, listen to the experts, or
simply get out of their way.
Speaker 6 (00:58):
Clearly and sadly, and the president is not listening to
medical experts. And I don't know what ones who is
listening to any so well?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Listen to the experts will follow the data.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
On its face, it sounds reasonable. Experts by definition, should
know more than the common man. But is there a
time when we should say to hell with the experts.
I'm Patrick CARELCI.
Speaker 7 (01:22):
And I'm Adriana Cortez.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And this is Red Pilled America a storytelling show.
Speaker 7 (01:28):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We are all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 7 (01:37):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans that the globalists ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
You could think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth.
Speaker 8 (01:54):
Welcome to Red Pilled America.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Listen to the experts. Since the outset of the COVID
nineteen hysteria, this has been the top mancha of our leaders.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
What is the number one thing you're most concerned about
and what do you want to tell the American people?
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Number one thing I'm most concerned about? WHOOPI is misinformation.
Listen to the scientist, Listen to the doctors, Listen to
what they have to say.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
It may sound familiar. The slogan is a variation of
another phrase we often hear believe in science, and of
course anyone that questions the experts gets branded of brain
dead redneck. As unpopular as the question may be to
our so called intellectual betters, it still has to be
asked and answered. When should we stop listening to the
experts To find the answer, We're going to follow the
(02:53):
initial rise of the coronavirus in America and see how
the outbreak informed government decision makers. You may be surprised
to learn that there is a voice more important than
that of the authorized experts, and we better begin listening
to it.
Speaker 9 (03:14):
You know, my grandmother, Fay Lieberman, she did not deserve this.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
That's Jeremy Lieberman.
Speaker 9 (03:19):
She did not deserve this. She did nothing wrong. It
was always super diligent and everything took care of herself.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Jeremy's grandmother, Fay, was just a few weeks away from
turning ninety eight years young when a representative from the
Gerwin Jewish Nursing Home where she lived in Long Island
reached out to the Lieberman's to inform them that the
matriarch of their family had fallen ill.
Speaker 9 (03:39):
We got a call that my grandmother had a fever
and coughing, and you know, we said, are you testing
her and they said no. They basically said, we're going
to treat her as if guessin. They didn't want to
waste the tests on older people, which is an issue
on itself. And that was day one and the next
(04:01):
day is still a fever.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Jeremy's family was in contact with Fai through her cell phone.
She began complaining that she wasn't being let out of
her room, but she felt okay. Then oddly her cell
phone stopped working.
Speaker 9 (04:13):
I troubleshot it with my mom, who spoke to the
nursing home and they got it working again, so we
were able to speak to her. And then a couple
days later we got the phone call that it turned
into pneumonia. A day later, sorry, turned into pneumonia, and
then still had a fever, fever went down, came back,
and then the next day we got the call that
(04:34):
she passed away.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
It was April sixteenth, twenty twenty. They were told Faye
likely died of complications due to COVID nineteen.
Speaker 9 (04:42):
On her desk certificate, it basically says probable COVID nineteen infection.
So you know, I don't know what to say about that.
You know, they wouldn't test her, That's what they said.
They blatantly said that. You know, I can only unfortunately
keep thinking about what she must have felt like laying
(05:04):
in the bed, you know, alone with no family and
really have probably no clue what was going on, and
to be taken out by this.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Even though Fay was approaching the rare centenarian milestone, her
health was the envy of the family. And how was
her health before this.
Speaker 9 (05:21):
Better than ours? And when I say that, I mean
I really mean it. She was very healthy, you know,
my wife would always comment, you know, her mind was
sharp as attack. You know, she remembered everything still. You know,
obviously at ninety seven year your body is failing on
you a little bit.
Speaker 10 (05:40):
So she she.
Speaker 9 (05:40):
Didn't really walk much. But no, you know, organ issues, no, no,
no disease, no sicknesses. She had glaucoma, some some bad
eye problems, but that was really it.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Hearing that Fay may have died from the coronavirus was
puzzling to Jeremy and his family. Just a few weeks earlier,
Governor Andrew Cuomo had made a pretty strong commitment to
the people of New York.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Who are we worried about seniors compromised immune system, people
with underlying illnesses. Where are the places we're really worried about,
nursing homes, senior congregate facilities. We need real diligence with
vulnerable populations.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Cuomo mock those willing to put the elderly at risk
to keep the economy open.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Well, we'll just sacrifice old people. They're old people anyway,
and the old get left behind. What is this some
modern Darwinian theory of natural selection? You can't keep up,
so the band is going to leave you behind. We're
(06:47):
going to move on. And if you can't keep up, well,
then you just fall by the wayside of life, God forbid.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
For many in the New York area with elder loved ones,
Quomo's comments give a bit of solace in a time
of great anxiety. If everyone followed the government's guidance, Grandma
would be safe, many thoughts.
Speaker 11 (07:06):
So.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
When the Lieberman family first got the news that their
matriarch was being treated for COVID like symptoms while isolated
in a nursing home, they were puzzled. How did this happen?
Jeremy began to do some digging.
Speaker 12 (07:19):
It was weird.
Speaker 9 (07:20):
So I found out she got COVID, you know, they
were treating her for COVID or she got her fever.
And the first thing I did was, you know, I
was kind of curious, so I went online and I
googled nursing homes letting COVID patients in, or nursing homes COVID,
and the first thing that came up was actually an
article that was written about nursing homes in Gerwin was featured.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Why was a nursing home admitting COVID nineteen patients into
their facility? To understand how shocking this must have been
for Jeremy and his family, we first have to go
back to the beginning of the COVID nineteen outbreak in America,
to a city in Washington State called Kirkland.
Speaker 7 (08:12):
The first sign that Washington State was going to be
the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak came on January twenty first,
twenty twenty, when a man from the area who'd returned
from Wuhan, China, six days earlier, tested positive for the coronavirus.
The development was troubling because just a day earlier, China
admitted for the first time publicly that the Wuhan flew,
(08:36):
as it was called at the time, could be transmitted
from human to human. Word of it reaching the States
was big news, but the nation's capital was completely preoccupied
with another manufactured crisis.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Mister Chief Justice, Senator's Council for the President, and my
fellow House Managers, I want to begin by thanking you,
Chief Justice for a very long day.
Speaker 13 (08:59):
The impeachment trial of President Trump is now underway, and
today we saw accusations and anger on the floor of
the Senate. Democrats are charging the Majority leader, Mitch McConnell
with orchestrating a cover up, saying he is trying to
force senators to hold the trial late at night when
Americans won't be watching.
Speaker 7 (09:17):
As that pointless effort marched on in Washington, d C.
The seeds of chaos began taking root in the other Washington.
About a week later, on January twenty ninth, trouble started
boiling up in a small town just outside of Seattle.
Speaker 14 (09:31):
What's going on with there? Today?
Speaker 15 (09:34):
Just helped us in the bed and SI seven respiratory
discress Ocosursday is sixty eighth with oxygen.
Speaker 16 (09:42):
Okay, Hell on. You said, she's having trouble breathing.
Speaker 15 (09:45):
Yes.
Speaker 7 (09:46):
A caregiver at the Life Care Center, a nursing home
and rehabilitation center in the city of Kirkland, called nine
one one when an eighty five year old resident was
showing signs of respiratory distress.
Speaker 14 (09:58):
Is he able to talk in normal sentences or does
she have to take a lot of breaks in between?
Speaker 15 (10:01):
She has to take a lot of It takes a
lot of energy for her to make it, you know, rewards.
Speaker 17 (10:06):
Okay, but does she take a lot of breaks for
her breathing or is able to stay a full sentence?
Speaker 15 (10:13):
She is able to, but it takes a longer.
Speaker 7 (10:15):
Ten days later, the same nursing home had a similar
health incident.
Speaker 10 (10:18):
Nine one one emergency, Hi, this is Life Care setting
up Kirkland.
Speaker 18 (10:24):
We have a lady in the lobby that is having
a chest pain and shortness of breath.
Speaker 7 (10:29):
Okay, but this time it wasn't a resident of the
nursing home.
Speaker 10 (10:33):
Is she conscious?
Speaker 18 (10:34):
She is a visitor. She's conscious, in a weight, she's
a little educated writing, she's probably about sixty five.
Speaker 16 (10:41):
And he said, you've got chest pain going on right now?
Speaker 7 (10:44):
Yes, something was happening but it was still too early
to tell what. Ten days later, on February eighteenth, a
respiratory illness began to take hold at the life care center.
The condition reaching ahead for a fifty six year old resident, and.
Speaker 11 (11:00):
So she's having breathing difficulty, just shout of breath and
might also a bit elevated. Now okay.
Speaker 7 (11:08):
But it wasn't until the next day, February nineteenth, that
the staff marked the beginning of an outbreak that would
jeopardize the American way of life.
Speaker 11 (11:17):
Nine one one emergency, Yeah, medical, please.
Speaker 16 (11:21):
Is it a life care center?
Speaker 7 (11:24):
More after the break? How are you feeling about the
current state of our country? Longtime listeners of Red Pilled
America know that since our inception, we've been warning about
the dangers of giving.
Speaker 8 (11:39):
Up the culture.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Republicans abandoned storytelling, art, academia, entertainment, music, literature, the institutions
that define what it means to be American, and by
doing so, they allowed Marxists to pump their poisoned messages
into the American bloodstream.
Speaker 7 (12:00):
But there is a silver lining. Red Pilled America is
the beginning of an antidote, because we're pioneering the take
back of our culture. If we succeed, others will follow
and will create a symphony of storytellers that restores what
it means to be American.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Please consider supporting the show by visiting Redpilled America dot
com and clicking support or shop in the top menu.
It's time to tell our side of the story, and
with your help, we will continue to blaze the trail.
Speaker 7 (12:24):
Visit Redpilled America dot com to help us continue the fight.
Support what you love or it goes away. Welcome back.
So at the end of January, the Life Care Center
of Kirkland, Washington, began calling nine to one one looking
(12:46):
for help with residents that we're having strange respiratory issues.
The problem slowly persisted, but it wasn't until February nineteenth
that the staff marked the beginning of an outbreak that
would change America forever. That day, a sixty year old
man also had trouble breathing.
Speaker 11 (13:05):
Nine one one emergency medical place? Is it a life
care center?
Speaker 15 (13:11):
Correct?
Speaker 19 (13:12):
Okay?
Speaker 18 (13:12):
Eight?
Speaker 16 (13:12):
For somebody else.
Speaker 15 (13:15):
It's light patient okay?
Speaker 11 (13:17):
Male or female?
Speaker 15 (13:18):
Male?
Speaker 18 (13:19):
Hold sixty?
Speaker 16 (13:21):
Are they awake?
Speaker 15 (13:23):
Yes?
Speaker 14 (13:24):
Okay? And what's going on today?
Speaker 15 (13:26):
He just held those episodes of decreased level of consciousness,
and he's a THEOPD patient chronic oxygen used.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
Five days later, the respiratory issues continued to spread when
the vital signs of a seventy three year old resident
with pneumonia began to take a turn for the worse.
Speaker 16 (13:44):
And what's going on with her today?
Speaker 10 (13:46):
Uh?
Speaker 20 (13:47):
Well, she's been on antibiotics for pneumonia, but ATUSA is
just going down, so.
Speaker 16 (13:53):
Is she She's just having that oxygen level.
Speaker 20 (13:58):
Yeah, difficulty breathing here.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
She was taken to the hospital and would late be
the first resident to test positive for COVID nineteen. And
she wasn't the only one that fell ill on that day.
Speaker 16 (14:10):
And what made you call nine one one? What is
aligned in a bask condition right now?
Speaker 15 (14:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 21 (14:14):
Because he needs to be transported to the Harbor View
Medical Center.
Speaker 15 (14:18):
Okay, okay?
Speaker 16 (14:20):
And why are you question transferred Howdy medical.
Speaker 21 (14:23):
Because he's restless and then it's impossible for him to
send and he has in the mouth, he has kind
of some bleeding. I don't know what is that?
Speaker 18 (14:35):
Okay, So yeah.
Speaker 10 (14:36):
So that's that's why I've understood.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
The fifty five year old resident would also be rushed
to the local medical facility. He died two days later.
Calls from the nursing home to nine one one began
to increase in frequency. On February twenty sixth a resident
in her nineties fell ill.
Speaker 21 (14:56):
And what's going on that? She needs medical help today? Okay,
so she was she had pneumonia, she had a chest
X ray and she don't live a queen. But she
has a hard time breeding. She's full called and she
don't apolize that I gave her that one. She's on oxygen,
she was on two liters and is.
Speaker 16 (15:14):
She able to speak normally? Like?
Speaker 11 (15:16):
Is she able to get out of both sentence?
Speaker 21 (15:19):
No? Because of the breeding, she's not able and her
tread is up too.
Speaker 7 (15:23):
She was carted off to the hospital the next day.
The problems continued.
Speaker 14 (15:28):
Are they contests right now?
Speaker 11 (15:30):
She is?
Speaker 14 (15:31):
How old is she? Seventy four?
Speaker 16 (15:33):
Are you with her?
Speaker 14 (15:34):
Could I talk to her?
Speaker 17 (15:35):
I'm in the nurses station right now. And what she's responsive?
She is Dadi Karjak one thirty to one thirty six
lateboard breeding twenty four, twenty six.
Speaker 14 (15:46):
Also she's having difficulty breeding. Is she able to speak?
In fear sentences?
Speaker 17 (15:51):
Fragmented?
Speaker 7 (15:52):
Another respiratory issue. Another ambulance trip to the hospital that
same day, Still, another resident had trouble breathing.
Speaker 11 (15:59):
What are her septembs today? Today?
Speaker 16 (16:02):
Have those times?
Speaker 11 (16:03):
They're okay?
Speaker 16 (16:04):
Right now?
Speaker 12 (16:04):
Respirations is about forty forty two, and she's also sweating clammy,
having a hard time breathing.
Speaker 7 (16:15):
The respiratory illness was now completely gripping the life care center,
with twenty residents experiencing breathing problems. County health officials contacted
both the state and the US Center for Disease Control
and Prevention, and the calls kept coming into nine Poet
one with the resident in her eighties having complications due
to pneumonia.
Speaker 11 (16:35):
Okay, what's going on here today?
Speaker 15 (16:37):
She just has a AUTOSAD dropped to forty eight.
Speaker 16 (16:40):
She's conscious, correct.
Speaker 15 (16:42):
Yes, he's very confused right now?
Speaker 16 (16:45):
Okay, So you would say she's having difficulty breathing or.
Speaker 15 (16:47):
Can she absolutely yeah?
Speaker 22 (16:48):
Okay?
Speaker 11 (16:49):
Can she speak normally?
Speaker 23 (16:51):
No?
Speaker 18 (16:51):
Okay?
Speaker 11 (16:52):
Any other medical state of mind be relevant?
Speaker 15 (16:54):
CCHF. And she was diagnosed with pneumonia a couple of
days ago, and they started onlybiotics.
Speaker 16 (17:01):
Okay.
Speaker 7 (17:02):
The following day, officials from King County and Evergreen Hill
the hospital that was receiving patients from the nursing home
organized a press conference today a.
Speaker 24 (17:11):
Public health sellers the county is announcing three new presented
positive cases of novel coronavirus COVID nineteen, including one person
who died, and I wanted to start by expressing r
D and sincere condolences to the family members and loved
ones of the person who died. Two of the confirmed
cases are associated with a life care nursing facility as
(17:33):
a long term care facility in Kirkland, Washington.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
News of the COVID outbreak spread quickly throughout the community,
so much so that when a nurse from the life
care center called nine to one one that same day
about another resident, the dispatcher already had an inkling of
what she was up against.
Speaker 20 (18:00):
One emergency is going from left Care Centers in Carkland. Yeah,
we have a patient here. She's meant diagonals with pneumonia.
So now she's running a temp and she has a
negative for flu, so we think that she might This
(18:21):
is the place that sent the corona virus. Yeah, you
know they ever go to hospital? Okay, yeah, so can
you tell the the partners they need to be in
contact gear and drop let's gear.
Speaker 10 (18:34):
Please, Okay, she's having How old is she she loaded?
Speaker 20 (18:40):
How is little? Sorry, girttle birth is the nineteen.
Speaker 10 (18:45):
Forty okay, Okay, you know she traveled with China the
past fourteen days.
Speaker 20 (18:51):
Oh no, no, she hasn't gone anywhere.
Speaker 10 (18:53):
Okay, and so that she has, you know, she's in
contact with anyone.
Speaker 20 (18:57):
Who not that I know of, I mean all I
know that is the displace you.
Speaker 10 (19:03):
Guys got to confirming to case, the corona.
Speaker 20 (19:04):
Okay, yeah, so we're just one of.
Speaker 10 (19:07):
You, all right, all right, I'll let the aid for now.
Thank you, Okay, thank you, you're welcome.
Speaker 11 (19:13):
What okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry what?
Speaker 7 (19:16):
Sounding flustered, the dispatcher didn't have a chance to give
the nurse instructions, so she called back.
Speaker 11 (19:22):
Okay, we're okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 8 (19:27):
So she's coming.
Speaker 10 (19:28):
Out with a mask.
Speaker 11 (19:30):
Okay.
Speaker 18 (19:32):
Life Care is Center of Kirkland. Help me help you, Hi, this.
Speaker 14 (19:35):
Say nine one one again. I've been trying to get
ahold of but I need the patient and.
Speaker 10 (19:39):
Room you to have a mask on and out into
fresh air so the aid crew can pick her up.
Speaker 18 (19:45):
Okay, I'll hold one, yes, thank you, she's on the
way out, okay with a mask?
Speaker 10 (20:01):
Yes, okay.
Speaker 18 (20:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (20:03):
The following day, on March first, the illness hit yet
another resident.
Speaker 11 (20:08):
Not an emergency, Hi, I need someone into a life
care spin of Kirk Glen bills and whistles, sleep and.
Speaker 16 (20:14):
Has a patient to wait right now.
Speaker 11 (20:16):
He's somewhat conscious, okay, he's turning blue. He's having a
hard time breathing.
Speaker 16 (20:22):
How well disease sixty three? Okay? And has he has
he traveled out of the country to Asia, Iran or
Italy in the last fourteen days of onset as the symptom.
Speaker 11 (20:32):
He is not, But I guess I should let you
know that we are the building where Okay, we have
this too.
Speaker 16 (20:38):
Okay, sure, So what we're gonna ask you to do
is we're gonna ask you is it possible to wheel
him outside to place a mask on him?
Speaker 11 (20:44):
Oh? Well, okay, I'll try. We got to wheel him outside.
Speaker 10 (20:51):
Oh okay?
Speaker 11 (20:52):
Can can I go make that happen? Short?
Speaker 15 (20:54):
Okay?
Speaker 16 (20:54):
So, like I said, we have notified Dacre at the
beginning of a call, but if possible, we'd ask you
to wheel him outside and place a map on him.
Four to eight crew gets there, okay, okay, thank you
all right by.
Speaker 7 (21:03):
By March second, the Life Care center was ravaged with
cases of coronavirus and the nine one one calls kept
coming and.
Speaker 11 (21:11):
As a patient's awake right now, she's awake and alert
the trowsy Okay, how old is she? She's ninety years
old and I'm just confirmed she has been exposed to
someone with the coronavirus.
Speaker 10 (21:22):
Is that correct?
Speaker 11 (21:23):
She is in the building, Okay, different side of the building.
Speaker 16 (21:28):
So what we're going to ask you to do is
we're going to ask you to take her outside and
make sure she's wearing a mask for the eight crew. Hey,
now I want emergency.
Speaker 10 (21:37):
Hello, this is at Life Care Center of Kirkland. I'm
calling because I have a patient who was displaying respiratory symptoms.
Speaker 16 (21:46):
Okay, how old is he is?
Speaker 18 (21:48):
Age's seventy four.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
The situation had escalated to the point that Washington Governor
Jay Insley held a press conference to brief the public
on the situation.
Speaker 25 (21:56):
We want to extend our statewide condolences to the families
who've lost loved ones to the COVID nineteen virus. Any
loss to any family is a tragedy, but obviously given
the nature of this crisis, we feel that profoundly across
the state of Washington and nationally, I believe as well.
Our thoughts are with the families that continue to recover
(22:19):
with this and we are very hopeful for their eventual recovery.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
By March sixth, fifteen, COVID nineteen debts were recorded in
the US. The coronavirus had arrived in America, and the
media began pumping out the fear porn And.
Speaker 26 (22:34):
There has been news breaking by the hour about this
virus spreading here in the United States. But we're going
to begin this second hour in one of the most
troubling hotspots here in the country, the coronavirus in Washington
State now reporting at least fifteen deaths, more than any
other state in the country, and most of those cases
coming from the life care nursing home. We are now
hearing tonight from someone inside that nursing home describing what
(22:56):
it's like to be trapped inside.
Speaker 7 (22:59):
By March tenth, the coronavirus spread to three different Washington
State nursing homes. Then a day later.
Speaker 23 (23:07):
News that ten nursing homes and care centers now report
cases of the virus.
Speaker 26 (23:12):
The grim reality is that for the elderly, COVID nineteen
is almost a perfect killing machine.
Speaker 23 (23:20):
Twenty two of the state's twenty six fatalities in the
life care center alone.
Speaker 7 (23:25):
What became very clear, and the only thing that America
knew for sure about the coronavirus at the time, was
that the most vulnerable population was the elderly. The life
care center in Kirkland showed that it could spread like
wildfire within that community. As March twentieth approached, at least
thirty five COVID nineteen debts were connected to the Washington
(23:45):
Nursing Home, and the CDC estimated that eighty percent of
the coronavirus debts in the US had been among people
sixty five years of age or older, with most having
some underlying health condition. Welcome back to red pilled America. So,
(24:06):
as March twentieth, twenty twenty approached, at least thirty five
COVID nineteen deaths were connected to the Washington Nursing Home,
and the CDC estimated that eighty percent of coronavirus deaths
in the US had been among people sixty five years
of age or older, with most having some other underlying
health condition. It was around this time that states with
(24:27):
the highest number of coronavirus cases began taking action. New
York Governor Andrew Cuomo was one of the first to respond.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
The number one opportunity to make a difference here is
to flatten the curve. Flatten the increase in the number
of cases, as we've talked about, flattened the increase of
the number of cases coming into the hospital system. And
the best way to do that is by reducing density.
(24:57):
Because the rate of increase in the number of cases
or tends a total overwhelming of our hospital system. So
we're going to put out an executive order today new
York State on pause. We've studied all the other countries.
Speaker 27 (25:16):
We've talked to people all across the globe about what
they did, what they've done, what worked, what doesn't work,
and that has all informed this policy.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Two basic rules. Only essential businesses will be functioning. Only
essential businesses can have workers commuting to the job or
on the job. Second rule, remain indoors to the greatest
extent to protect physical and mental health.
Speaker 7 (25:47):
Governor Cuomo identified the most vulnerable American population, and given
what happened in Kirkland, Washington, it was obvious what group
that was.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
We also have specific rules for people's condoms. First is
for the what we call the quote unquote vulnerable population.
And remember, many people will get this disease. People will
get it, people will recover. That's what's going to happen
(26:18):
for the vast majority. That's what's happening in this state,
for the vast majority. Who are we worried about seniors
compromised immune system, people with underlying illnesses. Where are the
places where really worried about nursing homes, senior congregate facilities.
We need real diligence with vulnerable populations.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
According to the New York governor, the state's plan was
designed specifically to protect this community. Pomo claimed his experts
devised a set of rules to protect the state's elders,
and the governor even came up with the branding scheme
to make them personal.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I call it Matilda's Law. My mother's name is Matilda.
Everybody's mother, father, sister, friend in a vulnerable population. This
is about protecting them. It's about protecting them. What you
do is highly highly affects their health and well being.
Speaker 7 (27:22):
It was the beginning of a powerful meme. One seated
with the truth we needed to take precautions to protect
our elders. But there was a problem. No reasonable person
disagreed with the goal, but some felt that the American
economy should not be shut down under any circumstances, and
this position was not without merit. A smallpox outbreak didn't
(27:43):
stop the American Revolution, an outbreak that reportedly killed one
out of every three infected. Surely we can protect the
vulnerable without shutting down the greatest machine of health and
security that the world has ever known. But just as
this sentiment was voiced, the experts came up with a
novel counter narrative. To save Grandma, we needed to stay home.
(28:05):
And it was Andrew Cuomo that took the lead in
spreading the message.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Yeah, my mother is not expendable, and your mother is
not expendable.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
It was a brilliant tactic that resonated, and the leader's
tasked with convincing the public to shelter in place began
using it to shame Americans into complying. Doctor Deborah Burks,
the White House coronavirus Response coordinator, helped drive home the
narrative with the personal story of her own.
Speaker 28 (28:32):
It's very important to me personally because my grandmother for
eighty eight years lied with the fact that she was
the one, at age eleven who brought home flew to
her mother named Leah for which I am named, when
her mother had just delivered and her mother succumbed to
the great nineteen eighteen flu. She never forgot that she
(28:56):
was the child that was in school that innocently brought
that flew home. This is why we keep saying to
every American, you have a role to protect each and
every person that you interact with. We have a role
to protect one another. It's why we are social distancing,
and you are social distancing. But to every American out there,
when you are protecting yourself, you're protecting others. And if
(29:20):
you inadvertently, I know, brought this virus home to someone
with a pre existing condition, I can tell you my
grandmother lived with that for eighty eight years.
Speaker 7 (29:29):
It worked like a charm. Anyone that felt that we
should focus on quarantining the vulnerable and the infected while
keeping open the economy was branded as a greedy granny murderer,
(29:52):
with the majority of the public now convinced that staying
home for just a few weeks was the way forward.
The experts in hotspots went to work. With new data
coming in, they began modeling the spread of the virus.
In New York. Epidemiologist initially projected that hospitalizations related to
COVID nineteen would require one hundred and ten thousand hospital beds,
(30:14):
but the state only had fifty three thousand. That was
a dark prediction, and it got even grimmer just a
few days later. On March twenty fourth, the projection was
increased dramatically.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
We had projected the apex at about one hundred and
ten thousand hospital beds, and that's the number I've been
talking about. The new projection suggests that the number of
hospital beds needed could be as high as one hundred
and forty thousand hospital beds.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
Now, the experts claimed that New York State was going
to have to create almost ninety thousand additional hospital beds
to prepare for the surge in COVID infections, and they
would need them as early as fourteen days. Where were
those beds going to come from? Governor Cromo expressed what
he was willing to do to find them.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
I have no problem using thermitories all across our state, campuses,
our community campuses, our state university campuses. I'm speaking to
hotel owners about taking over their hotels to put patients in.
I will turn this state upside down to get the
(31:21):
number of beds we need.
Speaker 7 (31:23):
The next day, the Quomo administration embarked on an unprecedented
effort to increase hospital bed capacity. First, it began developing
emergency hospitals throughout the state, including a massive facility at
the Javitz Convention Center.
Speaker 13 (31:36):
Breakdown for us how this transformation of the Javit Center
will work.
Speaker 29 (31:39):
What types of treatments will patients they are receive.
Speaker 19 (31:42):
Right, Lindzye, Well, they expect to have about a thousand
hospital beds here. They're going to have four facities facilities
just like this all around the state. Essentially, at first
they plan on putting patients here that are essentially overflow patients,
patients that don't have COVID nineteen. But if situations get
very dire, they are ready to convert this facility also
into a coronavirus hospital to treat patients here if need be.
(32:05):
Of course, Andrew Cuomo and other governors across the state
are preaching that things are bad now they're gonna get
even worse in the future, and they're trying to plan
for that now instead of later.
Speaker 7 (32:14):
But the Cuomo administration didn't stop there. It quietly initiated
another policy, one that Jeremy Lieberman would uncover a few
weeks later.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
When Jeremy's family first got word from the Gerwin Jewish
nursing home that the matriarch of their family was displaying
symptoms of COVID nineteen, Jeremy began researching how the virus
could have made its way into the facility, and what
he found was a memo posted deep on the nursing
home website. It was an edict issued by the State
of New York.
Speaker 9 (32:43):
Basically, what it said was that they were mandated, along
with other nursing homes, to accept COVID positive patients into
the nursing home. And you know, they claimed that they
were keeping them segmented on the first floor.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
And the memo came from the New York State Department
of Health on letterhead that listed Governor and Cuomo and
two other state health officials. It required that nursing homes
take recovering COVID nineteen patients. The memo read quote, no
resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the nursing
home solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of
(33:19):
COVID nineteen end quote. The mandate also prohibited the facility
from requiring a coronavirus test before admittance. Again, Jeremy Lieberman.
Speaker 9 (33:29):
What I can understand for the life of me is
the first thing we learned about this virus is that
it impacts older people more than anybody. So what you
did here, now was you literally lit a brush fire
in the middle of the dryest forest in the world,
(33:50):
and you just let it burn.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
To anyone with common sense, it was a shocking mandate.
At the time the memo was issued to nursing homes
in late March, there was a lot we were still
learning about the coronavirus, but one thing that was served
was that the COVID infection predominantly attacked elders, especially those
with underlying health conditions, the same exact population found in
nursing homes. The mandate was a recipe for disaster, and
(34:15):
New York wasn't the only state enacting this policy. New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania,
and California were among other states that mandated the admission
of COVID nineteen patients into their state regulated nursing homes.
Why why, in the wake of Kirkland, Washington would our
leaders make the decision to place COVID nineteen patients into
(34:36):
these vulnerable communities.
Speaker 30 (34:38):
I think the main reason for these policies has been
a fear based on hospital surges.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
That's doctor Michael Wasserman, geriatrician and president of the California
Association of Long Term Care Medicine.
Speaker 30 (34:56):
So there's been a fear that hospitals will be overwhelmed
and there would need to be a place to send
patients too.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Doctor Washerman has been one of the few physicians that
very early on began warning policymakers that a dangerous set
of circumstances were on a catastrophic collision course.
Speaker 30 (35:14):
On February twenty ninth, literally was when the first news
came out of Kirkland, Washington about the nursing home with COVID,
and my colleagues and I in the field of geriatrics
and long term care medicine.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Immediately knew what was coming.
Speaker 30 (35:32):
In fact, I was quoted literally on March eleventh, I
believe it was on NBC News nationally that this was
going to be the worst thing to have ever happened
to nursing homes in our lifetime.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
The doctor turned to other media outlets to sound the alarm.
Speaker 29 (35:52):
Across the country. COVID nineteen has created a crisis at
nursing home facilities. Sunday, more than one hundred residents and
staff tested positive at this Tennessee Rehability center outside Baltimore,
as staggering seventy seven seniors tested positive.
Speaker 31 (36:08):
Here.
Speaker 30 (36:09):
What we need to avoid is literally turning nursing homes
into our killing fields.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
As doctor Washerman and his colleagues pushed their message, news
reports began slowly seeping out about the coronavirus spreading through
nursing homes.
Speaker 13 (36:23):
And across the country. Tonight, we're seeing an alarming rise
in coronavirus cases at nursing homes. More than half the
nursing homes in New Jersey have at least one case.
Three patients have died. At a nursing home in Missouri,
and at a home near Richmond, Virginia, thirty three have died.
The question is should we be forced to introduce the
disease with such deadly potential into a population that has been.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Sheltered, and my experience tells me that would be ill advised.
Speaker 9 (36:51):
And it won't even help overcrowded hospitals, says doctor Michael Wasserman,
the head of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine.
Speaker 31 (36:59):
If you push folks out of the hostel hospitals to
make space and you push them into nursing homes a
couple weeks later, for every one of those you send
to the nursing home, you may get twenty back.
Speaker 6 (37:13):
This morning, the governor of New Jersey calling for a
statewide investigation of death set nursing homes after authorities say
they discovered seventeen bodies crammed into a small morgue at
the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
But the news reports were few and scattered, and we're
not applying pressure directly on the governor's issuing the mandate,
including Andrew Cuomo. In fact, the media was too busy
heaping praise on his efforts in New York the center
of the media industry.
Speaker 32 (37:39):
Andrew Cuomo has rapidly become for many people, the reassuring
face of America's fight against the coronavirus.
Speaker 30 (37:46):
People A Democrats want to see you replace jo Biden
on the ticket one of the reaction, and what you
think of one of that would you consider doing.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
That is on one hand flattering. On the other hand,
that is irrelevant.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Three weeks into the crisis, it was becoming clear that
the experts in New York were way off. At the
time the CUOMO required nursing homes to admit COVID nineteen patients,
the experts were projecting one hundred and forty thousand beds
were needed to deal with the future virus outbreak. However,
on April fourteenth, when the peak was projected to hit,
(38:21):
New York only had roughly nineteen thousand COVID hospitalizations, and
that number began to steadily decrease from there. The experts
were way off by a factor of seven. The Javid Center,
erected as an emergency hospital overflow facility, was nearly empty. Nevertheless,
Cuomo was still mandating nursing homes admit COVID nineteen patients.
(38:44):
On April twenty third, when asked about the policy, he
made the state's position clear.
Speaker 19 (38:49):
Did any nursing homes object to one was policy?
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Two? They don't have the right to object. That is
the rule, and that is the regulation, and they have
to comply with it. And the regulation is basic common sense.
If you can't provide adequate care, you can't have the
patient and your facility. And that's your basic fiduciary obligation,
I would say ethical obligation, and it's also your legal obligation.
(39:13):
If you can't provide adequate care, the person must be transferred.
If you have COVID people, they have to be quarantined,
they have to have separate staff. That's the rule. If
you can't do it, we'll put them in a facility
that can do it. That's the rule.
Speaker 32 (39:32):
If childhood leukemia was contagious and they were running out
of hospital beds, would you send those patients to summer
camps or grade schools or children's hospitals? Of course not.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
That's Mike Dark, a staff attorney at California Advocates for
Nursing Home Reform, a nonprofit based in San Francisco.
Speaker 32 (39:52):
But what these policies would do and are doing, are
pushing people who have contagious COVID into facility. These housing
populations that are the most vulnerable to COVID, people who
are older, people with serious underlying medical conditions, and those
(40:13):
people are by definition the people in skilled nursing facilities.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Like doctor Washerman Mike Dark says that the mandate for
nursing homes to accept COVID nineteen patients started as an
attempt to prepare for expert projected surges in hospitalization, but
when that rush never materialized, other parameters came into play.
Speaker 32 (40:32):
So there's a couple things at work here. First, if
you get discharged from a hospital to a skilled nursing facility,
you usually are covered by Medicare if you're an older person,
and Medicare provides a pretty good reimbursement rate. And there's
already been a decision that COVID patients discharge from acute
(40:54):
facilities will be covered by Medicare at a pretty high rate.
It's about eight hundred dollars a day. And that's partly
because these are patients with high what they call acuity
needs that they just need a lot of support. And
that's by contrast to the usual sort of population in
nursing homes, the stable population, people who live there for
(41:15):
some time, are people who, even if they didn't start
out for, they wind up for because nursing homes are
ten thousand dollars a month, and so those people are
on medical and medical pays two hundred dollars a day.
So the math kind of isn't hard to see that
if you take in COVID patients are getting reimbursed at
a pretty high rate, you will make a lot more
(41:38):
money than if you stick with your existing poor medical population.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Mister Dark also identifies a quality of nursing home residents
that left them vulnerable to these dangerous government mandates.
Speaker 32 (41:51):
People in nursing homes mostly don't vote, so they are
nobody's political constituency. They don't have any political action committees.
But the seeing home Bobby or the sort of broader
long term care industry is very powerful and very well moneyed,
and they know how to get a politician to jump.
(42:13):
And so there's a pretty simple political calculus embedded in
this too, which is this is a population which is
possible in our society to abandon to something like the
virus without there being any real consequences. I mean, families
will be upset, but they're not going to bout you
(42:33):
out of office.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
On a first, Javit Center emergency hospital closed.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Early this morning.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
There were only about eight patients inside the Javits Hospital.
It's closing today because it's no longer really needed a
clear sign that things are finally getting better.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
The four thousand bed facility had only treated a little
over one thousand patients over the month it was open. Shockingly,
the nursing home mandate was still kept in place. However,
by the end of the first week of May, the
media began to do something it typically avoids. It began reporting.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
CBS News has confirmed more than twenty thousand people who
live or work in nursing homes and other long term
care facilities have died from the coronavirus.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
After The New York Times published a story claiming one
third of all US coronavirus deaths were at nursing homes,
Governor Cuomo pulled a cya move and quickly reversed his policy.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Hospitals going forward cannot discharge a patient to a nursing
home unless the patient tests negative for COVID nineteen. So
we're just not going to send a person who is
positive to a nursing home after a hospital visit period.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Which leads back to the question when should we stop
listening to the experts. The answer is when common sense
trumps the authorized experts. At the height of the COVID
nineteen hysteria in New York, infectious disease experts were predicting
that this state would need ninety thousand additional hospital beds.
That grossly flawed calculation forced Governor Cuomo to make decisions
(44:25):
that were completely at odds with common sense. He made
the rash decision to force nursing homes to take COVID
nineteen patients, knowing that the outbreak began at a Washington
State nursing home, and governors and other states followed suit.
There were experts like doctor Michael Wasserman and Mike Dark
that understood how disastrous this decision would be. They just
(44:46):
didn't have a seat at the table when the plan
was devised.
Speaker 30 (44:49):
It's really been a strange situation where I think the
average person intuitively got this. The experts in Geriatrix got it,
but somehow everyone else just missed it.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
The COVID nineteen presit has shown when the authorized experts
lack common sense, they should be rejected. But that won't
bring Jeremy Lieberman's grandmother.
Speaker 12 (45:11):
Back to me.
Speaker 9 (45:12):
It's common sense, right, you know, there's no reason my
kids are three and one that they couldn't have been
five and three and a five years old, you know,
shared a couple of awesome memories with their great grandmother,
you know, and and to me, like you said, experts
from experts, And unfortunately, this is the case that I've
seen and I've spoken to people about. There is a
(45:33):
monetary value put on the lives of people. And if
you're an older person and you don't have much, and
that was my grandmother, the monetary value of your life
is very low. My goal was to raise awareness, right
(46:03):
to stop the bleeding, you know. Basically my goal is
never to you know, get anything beyond that.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Now, Jeremy has a final mission he's.
Speaker 9 (46:12):
Working towards, you know, trust me. I see the stuff
Cuomo's done in New York State and I think they've
done a lot right. But this one is very wrong,
very very wrong. So my number one goal is basically
vengeance for my grandmother. And you know, there needs to
be some accountability.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
But something tells me that the authorized experts that made
the deadly call will be fighting that accountability with everything
they have.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
The nursing home industry is now seeking immunity from lawsuits
tied to the outbreak. At least fifteen states have passed
laws offering some legal protection.
Speaker 22 (46:45):
See two families who've suffered losses inside nursing homes and
they're looking for accountability and they'd like to see justice.
They felt so much solace when you got up and
talked about Matilda's Law. They said, great, we'll protect it,
like our loved ones are going to be okay because
of Matilda's Law.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
What the comment to that, Yeah, the comment is this,
we lost one hundred and thirty nine people yesterday in hospitals.
Who is accountable for those one hundred and thirty nine deaths.
Who can we prosecute for those deaths? Nobody? Nobody. Older people,
(47:23):
vulnerable people are going to die from this virus.
Speaker 7 (47:29):
Red Pilled America's an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's produced by
Patrick Carrelci and me Adriana Quortez for Inform Ventures. Now,
our entire archive of episodes are only available to backstage subscribers.
To become a backstage subscriber, please visit Redpilled America dot
com and click the support button in the top menu.
That's red Pilled America dot com and click support in
the top menu. Thanks for listening, building,
This is Red Pilled America. With the New York City's
mayor's race heating up, many are wondering how New Yorkers
could vote for the Democrat socialist so ranmom Donnie Well.
This story goes a long way into explaining why many
from the Big Apple are rejecting the state's former governor,
Andrew Cuomo. It was originally broadcast on May twenty second,
twenty twenty and if you want access to our entire
(00:24):
back catalog ad free, please visit Redpilled America dot com
and click join in the top menu. Support what you
love or it goes away. Throughout the coronavirus hysteria, there's
been one phrase that's become a staple in our news feeds,
and that is listen to the experts.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
President Trump said today he would like to reopen the
country by easter.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Or what's your response?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
He should stop talking and start listening to the medical experts.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
And if this president wants to be a wartime president,
he needs to stop vascillating, listen to the experts, or
simply get out of their way.
Speaker 6 (00:58):
Clearly and sadly, and the president is not listening to
medical experts. And I don't know what ones who is
listening to any so well?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Listen to the experts will follow the data.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
On its face, it sounds reasonable. Experts by definition, should
know more than the common man. But is there a
time when we should say to hell with the experts.
I'm Patrick CARELCI.
Speaker 7 (01:22):
And I'm Adriana Cortez.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
And this is Red Pilled America a storytelling show.
Speaker 7 (01:28):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We are all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 7 (01:37):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans that the globalists ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
You could think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth.
Speaker 8 (01:54):
Welcome to Red Pilled America.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Listen to the experts. Since the outset of the COVID
nineteen hysteria, this has been the top mancha of our leaders.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
What is the number one thing you're most concerned about
and what do you want to tell the American people?
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Number one thing I'm most concerned about? WHOOPI is misinformation.
Listen to the scientist, Listen to the doctors, Listen to
what they have to say.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
It may sound familiar. The slogan is a variation of
another phrase we often hear believe in science, and of
course anyone that questions the experts gets branded of brain
dead redneck. As unpopular as the question may be to
our so called intellectual betters, it still has to be
asked and answered. When should we stop listening to the
experts To find the answer, We're going to follow the
(02:53):
initial rise of the coronavirus in America and see how
the outbreak informed government decision makers. You may be surprised
to learn that there is a voice more important than
that of the authorized experts, and we better begin listening
to it.
Speaker 9 (03:14):
You know, my grandmother, Fay Lieberman, she did not deserve this.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
That's Jeremy Lieberman.
Speaker 9 (03:19):
She did not deserve this. She did nothing wrong. It
was always super diligent and everything took care of herself.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Jeremy's grandmother, Fay, was just a few weeks away from
turning ninety eight years young when a representative from the
Gerwin Jewish Nursing Home where she lived in Long Island
reached out to the Lieberman's to inform them that the
matriarch of their family had fallen ill.
Speaker 9 (03:39):
We got a call that my grandmother had a fever
and coughing, and you know, we said, are you testing
her and they said no. They basically said, we're going
to treat her as if guessin. They didn't want to
waste the tests on older people, which is an issue
on itself. And that was day one and the next
(04:01):
day is still a fever.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Jeremy's family was in contact with Fai through her cell phone.
She began complaining that she wasn't being let out of
her room, but she felt okay. Then oddly her cell
phone stopped working.
Speaker 9 (04:13):
I troubleshot it with my mom, who spoke to the
nursing home and they got it working again, so we
were able to speak to her. And then a couple
days later we got the phone call that it turned
into pneumonia. A day later, sorry, turned into pneumonia, and
then still had a fever, fever went down, came back,
and then the next day we got the call that
(04:34):
she passed away.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
It was April sixteenth, twenty twenty. They were told Faye
likely died of complications due to COVID nineteen.
Speaker 9 (04:42):
On her desk certificate, it basically says probable COVID nineteen infection.
So you know, I don't know what to say about that.
You know, they wouldn't test her, That's what they said.
They blatantly said that. You know, I can only unfortunately
keep thinking about what she must have felt like laying
(05:04):
in the bed, you know, alone with no family and
really have probably no clue what was going on, and
to be taken out by this.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Even though Fay was approaching the rare centenarian milestone, her
health was the envy of the family. And how was
her health before this.
Speaker 9 (05:21):
Better than ours? And when I say that, I mean
I really mean it. She was very healthy, you know,
my wife would always comment, you know, her mind was
sharp as attack. You know, she remembered everything still. You know,
obviously at ninety seven year your body is failing on
you a little bit.
Speaker 10 (05:40):
So she she.
Speaker 9 (05:40):
Didn't really walk much. But no, you know, organ issues, no, no,
no disease, no sicknesses. She had glaucoma, some some bad
eye problems, but that was really it.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Hearing that Fay may have died from the coronavirus was
puzzling to Jeremy and his family. Just a few weeks earlier,
Governor Andrew Cuomo had made a pretty strong commitment to
the people of New York.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Who are we worried about seniors compromised immune system, people
with underlying illnesses. Where are the places we're really worried about,
nursing homes, senior congregate facilities. We need real diligence with
vulnerable populations.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Cuomo mock those willing to put the elderly at risk
to keep the economy open.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Well, we'll just sacrifice old people. They're old people anyway,
and the old get left behind. What is this some
modern Darwinian theory of natural selection? You can't keep up,
so the band is going to leave you behind. We're
(06:47):
going to move on. And if you can't keep up, well,
then you just fall by the wayside of life, God forbid.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
For many in the New York area with elder loved ones,
Quomo's comments give a bit of solace in a time
of great anxiety. If everyone followed the government's guidance, Grandma
would be safe, many thoughts.
Speaker 11 (07:06):
So.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
When the Lieberman family first got the news that their
matriarch was being treated for COVID like symptoms while isolated
in a nursing home, they were puzzled. How did this happen?
Jeremy began to do some digging.
Speaker 12 (07:19):
It was weird.
Speaker 9 (07:20):
So I found out she got COVID, you know, they
were treating her for COVID or she got her fever.
And the first thing I did was, you know, I
was kind of curious, so I went online and I
googled nursing homes letting COVID patients in, or nursing homes COVID,
and the first thing that came up was actually an
article that was written about nursing homes in Gerwin was featured.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Why was a nursing home admitting COVID nineteen patients into
their facility? To understand how shocking this must have been
for Jeremy and his family, we first have to go
back to the beginning of the COVID nineteen outbreak in America,
to a city in Washington State called Kirkland.
Speaker 7 (08:12):
The first sign that Washington State was going to be
the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak came on January twenty first,
twenty twenty, when a man from the area who'd returned
from Wuhan, China, six days earlier, tested positive for the coronavirus.
The development was troubling because just a day earlier, China
admitted for the first time publicly that the Wuhan flew,
(08:36):
as it was called at the time, could be transmitted
from human to human. Word of it reaching the States
was big news, but the nation's capital was completely preoccupied
with another manufactured crisis.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
Mister Chief Justice, Senator's Council for the President, and my
fellow House Managers, I want to begin by thanking you,
Chief Justice for a very long day.
Speaker 13 (08:59):
The impeachment trial of President Trump is now underway, and
today we saw accusations and anger on the floor of
the Senate. Democrats are charging the Majority leader, Mitch McConnell
with orchestrating a cover up, saying he is trying to
force senators to hold the trial late at night when
Americans won't be watching.
Speaker 7 (09:17):
As that pointless effort marched on in Washington, d C.
The seeds of chaos began taking root in the other Washington.
About a week later, on January twenty ninth, trouble started
boiling up in a small town just outside of Seattle.
Speaker 14 (09:31):
What's going on with there? Today?
Speaker 15 (09:34):
Just helped us in the bed and SI seven respiratory
discress Ocosursday is sixty eighth with oxygen.
Speaker 16 (09:42):
Okay, Hell on. You said, she's having trouble breathing.
Speaker 15 (09:45):
Yes.
Speaker 7 (09:46):
A caregiver at the Life Care Center, a nursing home
and rehabilitation center in the city of Kirkland, called nine
one one when an eighty five year old resident was
showing signs of respiratory distress.
Speaker 14 (09:58):
Is he able to talk in normal sentences or does
she have to take a lot of breaks in between?
Speaker 15 (10:01):
She has to take a lot of It takes a
lot of energy for her to make it, you know, rewards.
Speaker 17 (10:06):
Okay, but does she take a lot of breaks for
her breathing or is able to stay a full sentence?
Speaker 15 (10:13):
She is able to, but it takes a longer.
Speaker 7 (10:15):
Ten days later, the same nursing home had a similar
health incident.
Speaker 10 (10:18):
Nine one one emergency, Hi, this is Life Care setting
up Kirkland.
Speaker 18 (10:24):
We have a lady in the lobby that is having
a chest pain and shortness of breath.
Speaker 7 (10:29):
Okay, but this time it wasn't a resident of the
nursing home.
Speaker 10 (10:33):
Is she conscious?
Speaker 18 (10:34):
She is a visitor. She's conscious, in a weight, she's
a little educated writing, she's probably about sixty five.
Speaker 16 (10:41):
And he said, you've got chest pain going on right now?
Speaker 7 (10:44):
Yes, something was happening but it was still too early
to tell what. Ten days later, on February eighteenth, a
respiratory illness began to take hold at the life care center.
The condition reaching ahead for a fifty six year old resident, and.
Speaker 11 (11:00):
So she's having breathing difficulty, just shout of breath and
might also a bit elevated. Now okay.
Speaker 7 (11:08):
But it wasn't until the next day, February nineteenth, that
the staff marked the beginning of an outbreak that would
jeopardize the American way of life.
Speaker 11 (11:17):
Nine one one emergency, Yeah, medical, please.
Speaker 16 (11:21):
Is it a life care center?
Speaker 7 (11:24):
More after the break? How are you feeling about the
current state of our country? Longtime listeners of Red Pilled
America know that since our inception, we've been warning about
the dangers of giving.
Speaker 8 (11:39):
Up the culture.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Republicans abandoned storytelling, art, academia, entertainment, music, literature, the institutions
that define what it means to be American, and by
doing so, they allowed Marxists to pump their poisoned messages
into the American bloodstream.
Speaker 7 (12:00):
But there is a silver lining. Red Pilled America is
the beginning of an antidote, because we're pioneering the take
back of our culture. If we succeed, others will follow
and will create a symphony of storytellers that restores what
it means to be American.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Please consider supporting the show by visiting Redpilled America dot
com and clicking support or shop in the top menu.
It's time to tell our side of the story, and
with your help, we will continue to blaze the trail.
Speaker 7 (12:24):
Visit Redpilled America dot com to help us continue the fight.
Support what you love or it goes away. Welcome back.
So at the end of January, the Life Care Center
of Kirkland, Washington, began calling nine to one one looking
(12:46):
for help with residents that we're having strange respiratory issues.
The problem slowly persisted, but it wasn't until February nineteenth
that the staff marked the beginning of an outbreak that
would change America forever. That day, a sixty year old
man also had trouble breathing.
Speaker 11 (13:05):
Nine one one emergency medical place? Is it a life
care center?
Speaker 15 (13:11):
Correct?
Speaker 19 (13:12):
Okay?
Speaker 18 (13:12):
Eight?
Speaker 16 (13:12):
For somebody else.
Speaker 15 (13:15):
It's light patient okay?
Speaker 11 (13:17):
Male or female?
Speaker 15 (13:18):
Male?
Speaker 18 (13:19):
Hold sixty?
Speaker 16 (13:21):
Are they awake?
Speaker 15 (13:23):
Yes?
Speaker 14 (13:24):
Okay? And what's going on today?
Speaker 15 (13:26):
He just held those episodes of decreased level of consciousness,
and he's a THEOPD patient chronic oxygen used.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
Five days later, the respiratory issues continued to spread when
the vital signs of a seventy three year old resident
with pneumonia began to take a turn for the worse.
Speaker 16 (13:44):
And what's going on with her today?
Speaker 10 (13:46):
Uh?
Speaker 20 (13:47):
Well, she's been on antibiotics for pneumonia, but ATUSA is
just going down, so.
Speaker 16 (13:53):
Is she She's just having that oxygen level.
Speaker 20 (13:58):
Yeah, difficulty breathing here.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
She was taken to the hospital and would late be
the first resident to test positive for COVID nineteen. And
she wasn't the only one that fell ill on that day.
Speaker 16 (14:10):
And what made you call nine one one? What is
aligned in a bask condition right now?
Speaker 15 (14:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 21 (14:14):
Because he needs to be transported to the Harbor View
Medical Center.
Speaker 15 (14:18):
Okay, okay?
Speaker 16 (14:20):
And why are you question transferred Howdy medical.
Speaker 21 (14:23):
Because he's restless and then it's impossible for him to
send and he has in the mouth, he has kind
of some bleeding. I don't know what is that?
Speaker 18 (14:35):
Okay, So yeah.
Speaker 10 (14:36):
So that's that's why I've understood.
Speaker 7 (14:40):
The fifty five year old resident would also be rushed
to the local medical facility. He died two days later.
Calls from the nursing home to nine one one began
to increase in frequency. On February twenty sixth a resident
in her nineties fell ill.
Speaker 21 (14:56):
And what's going on that? She needs medical help today? Okay,
so she was she had pneumonia, she had a chest
X ray and she don't live a queen. But she
has a hard time breeding. She's full called and she
don't apolize that I gave her that one. She's on oxygen,
she was on two liters and is.
Speaker 16 (15:14):
She able to speak normally? Like?
Speaker 11 (15:16):
Is she able to get out of both sentence?
Speaker 21 (15:19):
No? Because of the breeding, she's not able and her
tread is up too.
Speaker 7 (15:23):
She was carted off to the hospital the next day.
The problems continued.
Speaker 14 (15:28):
Are they contests right now?
Speaker 11 (15:30):
She is?
Speaker 14 (15:31):
How old is she? Seventy four?
Speaker 16 (15:33):
Are you with her?
Speaker 14 (15:34):
Could I talk to her?
Speaker 17 (15:35):
I'm in the nurses station right now. And what she's responsive?
She is Dadi Karjak one thirty to one thirty six
lateboard breeding twenty four, twenty six.
Speaker 14 (15:46):
Also she's having difficulty breeding. Is she able to speak?
In fear sentences?
Speaker 17 (15:51):
Fragmented?
Speaker 7 (15:52):
Another respiratory issue. Another ambulance trip to the hospital that
same day, Still, another resident had trouble breathing.
Speaker 11 (15:59):
What are her septembs today? Today?
Speaker 16 (16:02):
Have those times?
Speaker 11 (16:03):
They're okay?
Speaker 16 (16:04):
Right now?
Speaker 12 (16:04):
Respirations is about forty forty two, and she's also sweating clammy,
having a hard time breathing.
Speaker 7 (16:15):
The respiratory illness was now completely gripping the life care center,
with twenty residents experiencing breathing problems. County health officials contacted
both the state and the US Center for Disease Control
and Prevention, and the calls kept coming into nine Poet
one with the resident in her eighties having complications due
to pneumonia.
Speaker 11 (16:35):
Okay, what's going on here today?
Speaker 15 (16:37):
She just has a AUTOSAD dropped to forty eight.
Speaker 16 (16:40):
She's conscious, correct.
Speaker 15 (16:42):
Yes, he's very confused right now?
Speaker 16 (16:45):
Okay, So you would say she's having difficulty breathing or.
Speaker 15 (16:47):
Can she absolutely yeah?
Speaker 22 (16:48):
Okay?
Speaker 11 (16:49):
Can she speak normally?
Speaker 23 (16:51):
No?
Speaker 18 (16:51):
Okay?
Speaker 11 (16:52):
Any other medical state of mind be relevant?
Speaker 15 (16:54):
CCHF. And she was diagnosed with pneumonia a couple of
days ago, and they started onlybiotics.
Speaker 16 (17:01):
Okay.
Speaker 7 (17:02):
The following day, officials from King County and Evergreen Hill
the hospital that was receiving patients from the nursing home
organized a press conference today a.
Speaker 24 (17:11):
Public health sellers the county is announcing three new presented
positive cases of novel coronavirus COVID nineteen, including one person
who died, and I wanted to start by expressing r
D and sincere condolences to the family members and loved
ones of the person who died. Two of the confirmed
cases are associated with a life care nursing facility as
(17:33):
a long term care facility in Kirkland, Washington.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
News of the COVID outbreak spread quickly throughout the community,
so much so that when a nurse from the life
care center called nine to one one that same day
about another resident, the dispatcher already had an inkling of
what she was up against.
Speaker 20 (18:00):
One emergency is going from left Care Centers in Carkland. Yeah,
we have a patient here. She's meant diagonals with pneumonia.
So now she's running a temp and she has a
negative for flu, so we think that she might This
(18:21):
is the place that sent the corona virus. Yeah, you
know they ever go to hospital? Okay, yeah, so can
you tell the the partners they need to be in
contact gear and drop let's gear.
Speaker 10 (18:34):
Please, Okay, she's having How old is she she loaded?
Speaker 20 (18:40):
How is little? Sorry, girttle birth is the nineteen.
Speaker 10 (18:45):
Forty okay, Okay, you know she traveled with China the
past fourteen days.
Speaker 20 (18:51):
Oh no, no, she hasn't gone anywhere.
Speaker 10 (18:53):
Okay, and so that she has, you know, she's in
contact with anyone.
Speaker 20 (18:57):
Who not that I know of, I mean all I
know that is the displace you.
Speaker 10 (19:03):
Guys got to confirming to case, the corona.
Speaker 20 (19:04):
Okay, yeah, so we're just one of.
Speaker 10 (19:07):
You, all right, all right, I'll let the aid for now.
Thank you, Okay, thank you, you're welcome.
Speaker 11 (19:13):
What okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry what?
Speaker 7 (19:16):
Sounding flustered, the dispatcher didn't have a chance to give
the nurse instructions, so she called back.
Speaker 11 (19:22):
Okay, we're okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 8 (19:27):
So she's coming.
Speaker 10 (19:28):
Out with a mask.
Speaker 11 (19:30):
Okay.
Speaker 18 (19:32):
Life Care is Center of Kirkland. Help me help you, Hi, this.
Speaker 14 (19:35):
Say nine one one again. I've been trying to get
ahold of but I need the patient and.
Speaker 10 (19:39):
Room you to have a mask on and out into
fresh air so the aid crew can pick her up.
Speaker 18 (19:45):
Okay, I'll hold one, yes, thank you, she's on the
way out, okay with a mask?
Speaker 10 (20:01):
Yes, okay.
Speaker 18 (20:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (20:03):
The following day, on March first, the illness hit yet
another resident.
Speaker 11 (20:08):
Not an emergency, Hi, I need someone into a life
care spin of Kirk Glen bills and whistles, sleep and.
Speaker 16 (20:14):
Has a patient to wait right now.
Speaker 11 (20:16):
He's somewhat conscious, okay, he's turning blue. He's having a
hard time breathing.
Speaker 16 (20:22):
How well disease sixty three? Okay? And has he has
he traveled out of the country to Asia, Iran or
Italy in the last fourteen days of onset as the symptom.
Speaker 11 (20:32):
He is not, But I guess I should let you
know that we are the building where Okay, we have
this too.
Speaker 16 (20:38):
Okay, sure, So what we're gonna ask you to do
is we're gonna ask you is it possible to wheel
him outside to place a mask on him?
Speaker 11 (20:44):
Oh? Well, okay, I'll try. We got to wheel him outside.
Speaker 10 (20:51):
Oh okay?
Speaker 11 (20:52):
Can can I go make that happen? Short?
Speaker 15 (20:54):
Okay?
Speaker 16 (20:54):
So, like I said, we have notified Dacre at the
beginning of a call, but if possible, we'd ask you
to wheel him outside and place a map on him.
Four to eight crew gets there, okay, okay, thank you
all right by.
Speaker 7 (21:03):
By March second, the Life Care center was ravaged with
cases of coronavirus and the nine one one calls kept
coming and.
Speaker 11 (21:11):
As a patient's awake right now, she's awake and alert
the trowsy Okay, how old is she? She's ninety years
old and I'm just confirmed she has been exposed to
someone with the coronavirus.
Speaker 10 (21:22):
Is that correct?
Speaker 11 (21:23):
She is in the building, Okay, different side of the building.
Speaker 16 (21:28):
So what we're going to ask you to do is
we're going to ask you to take her outside and
make sure she's wearing a mask for the eight crew. Hey,
now I want emergency.
Speaker 10 (21:37):
Hello, this is at Life Care Center of Kirkland. I'm
calling because I have a patient who was displaying respiratory symptoms.
Speaker 16 (21:46):
Okay, how old is he is?
Speaker 18 (21:48):
Age's seventy four.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
The situation had escalated to the point that Washington Governor
Jay Insley held a press conference to brief the public
on the situation.
Speaker 25 (21:56):
We want to extend our statewide condolences to the families
who've lost loved ones to the COVID nineteen virus. Any
loss to any family is a tragedy, but obviously given
the nature of this crisis, we feel that profoundly across
the state of Washington and nationally, I believe as well.
Our thoughts are with the families that continue to recover
(22:19):
with this and we are very hopeful for their eventual recovery.
Speaker 7 (22:23):
By March sixth, fifteen, COVID nineteen debts were recorded in
the US. The coronavirus had arrived in America, and the
media began pumping out the fear porn And.
Speaker 26 (22:34):
There has been news breaking by the hour about this
virus spreading here in the United States. But we're going
to begin this second hour in one of the most
troubling hotspots here in the country, the coronavirus in Washington
State now reporting at least fifteen deaths, more than any
other state in the country, and most of those cases
coming from the life care nursing home. We are now
hearing tonight from someone inside that nursing home describing what
(22:56):
it's like to be trapped inside.
Speaker 7 (22:59):
By March tenth, the coronavirus spread to three different Washington
State nursing homes. Then a day later.
Speaker 23 (23:07):
News that ten nursing homes and care centers now report
cases of the virus.
Speaker 26 (23:12):
The grim reality is that for the elderly, COVID nineteen
is almost a perfect killing machine.
Speaker 23 (23:20):
Twenty two of the state's twenty six fatalities in the
life care center alone.
Speaker 7 (23:25):
What became very clear, and the only thing that America
knew for sure about the coronavirus at the time, was
that the most vulnerable population was the elderly. The life
care center in Kirkland showed that it could spread like
wildfire within that community. As March twentieth approached, at least
thirty five COVID nineteen debts were connected to the Washington
(23:45):
Nursing Home, and the CDC estimated that eighty percent of
the coronavirus debts in the US had been among people
sixty five years of age or older, with most having
some underlying health condition. Welcome back to red pilled America. So,
(24:06):
as March twentieth, twenty twenty approached, at least thirty five
COVID nineteen deaths were connected to the Washington Nursing Home,
and the CDC estimated that eighty percent of coronavirus deaths
in the US had been among people sixty five years
of age or older, with most having some other underlying
health condition. It was around this time that states with
(24:27):
the highest number of coronavirus cases began taking action. New
York Governor Andrew Cuomo was one of the first to respond.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
The number one opportunity to make a difference here is
to flatten the curve. Flatten the increase in the number
of cases, as we've talked about, flattened the increase of
the number of cases coming into the hospital system. And
the best way to do that is by reducing density.
(24:57):
Because the rate of increase in the number of cases
or tends a total overwhelming of our hospital system. So
we're going to put out an executive order today new
York State on pause. We've studied all the other countries.
Speaker 27 (25:16):
We've talked to people all across the globe about what
they did, what they've done, what worked, what doesn't work,
and that has all informed this policy.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Two basic rules. Only essential businesses will be functioning. Only
essential businesses can have workers commuting to the job or
on the job. Second rule, remain indoors to the greatest
extent to protect physical and mental health.
Speaker 7 (25:47):
Governor Cuomo identified the most vulnerable American population, and given
what happened in Kirkland, Washington, it was obvious what group
that was.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
We also have specific rules for people's condoms. First is
for the what we call the quote unquote vulnerable population.
And remember, many people will get this disease. People will
get it, people will recover. That's what's going to happen
(26:18):
for the vast majority. That's what's happening in this state,
for the vast majority. Who are we worried about seniors
compromised immune system, people with underlying illnesses. Where are the
places where really worried about nursing homes, senior congregate facilities.
We need real diligence with vulnerable populations.
Speaker 7 (26:43):
According to the New York governor, the state's plan was
designed specifically to protect this community. Pomo claimed his experts
devised a set of rules to protect the state's elders,
and the governor even came up with the branding scheme
to make them personal.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I call it Matilda's Law. My mother's name is Matilda.
Everybody's mother, father, sister, friend in a vulnerable population. This
is about protecting them. It's about protecting them. What you
do is highly highly affects their health and well being.
Speaker 7 (27:22):
It was the beginning of a powerful meme. One seated
with the truth we needed to take precautions to protect
our elders. But there was a problem. No reasonable person
disagreed with the goal, but some felt that the American
economy should not be shut down under any circumstances, and
this position was not without merit. A smallpox outbreak didn't
(27:43):
stop the American Revolution, an outbreak that reportedly killed one
out of every three infected. Surely we can protect the
vulnerable without shutting down the greatest machine of health and
security that the world has ever known. But just as
this sentiment was voiced, the experts came up with a
novel counter narrative. To save Grandma, we needed to stay home.
(28:05):
And it was Andrew Cuomo that took the lead in
spreading the message.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
Yeah, my mother is not expendable, and your mother is
not expendable.
Speaker 7 (28:14):
It was a brilliant tactic that resonated, and the leader's
tasked with convincing the public to shelter in place began
using it to shame Americans into complying. Doctor Deborah Burks,
the White House coronavirus Response coordinator, helped drive home the
narrative with the personal story of her own.
Speaker 28 (28:32):
It's very important to me personally because my grandmother for
eighty eight years lied with the fact that she was
the one, at age eleven who brought home flew to
her mother named Leah for which I am named, when
her mother had just delivered and her mother succumbed to
the great nineteen eighteen flu. She never forgot that she
(28:56):
was the child that was in school that innocently brought
that flew home. This is why we keep saying to
every American, you have a role to protect each and
every person that you interact with. We have a role
to protect one another. It's why we are social distancing,
and you are social distancing. But to every American out there,
when you are protecting yourself, you're protecting others. And if
(29:20):
you inadvertently, I know, brought this virus home to someone
with a pre existing condition, I can tell you my
grandmother lived with that for eighty eight years.
Speaker 7 (29:29):
It worked like a charm. Anyone that felt that we
should focus on quarantining the vulnerable and the infected while
keeping open the economy was branded as a greedy granny murderer,
(29:52):
with the majority of the public now convinced that staying
home for just a few weeks was the way forward.
The experts in hotspots went to work. With new data
coming in, they began modeling the spread of the virus.
In New York. Epidemiologist initially projected that hospitalizations related to
COVID nineteen would require one hundred and ten thousand hospital beds,
(30:14):
but the state only had fifty three thousand. That was
a dark prediction, and it got even grimmer just a
few days later. On March twenty fourth, the projection was
increased dramatically.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
We had projected the apex at about one hundred and
ten thousand hospital beds, and that's the number I've been
talking about. The new projection suggests that the number of
hospital beds needed could be as high as one hundred
and forty thousand hospital beds.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
Now, the experts claimed that New York State was going
to have to create almost ninety thousand additional hospital beds
to prepare for the surge in COVID infections, and they
would need them as early as fourteen days. Where were
those beds going to come from? Governor Cromo expressed what
he was willing to do to find them.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
I have no problem using thermitories all across our state, campuses,
our community campuses, our state university campuses. I'm speaking to
hotel owners about taking over their hotels to put patients in.
I will turn this state upside down to get the
(31:21):
number of beds we need.
Speaker 7 (31:23):
The next day, the Quomo administration embarked on an unprecedented
effort to increase hospital bed capacity. First, it began developing
emergency hospitals throughout the state, including a massive facility at
the Javitz Convention Center.
Speaker 13 (31:36):
Breakdown for us how this transformation of the Javit Center
will work.
Speaker 29 (31:39):
What types of treatments will patients they are receive.
Speaker 19 (31:42):
Right, Lindzye, Well, they expect to have about a thousand
hospital beds here. They're going to have four facities facilities
just like this all around the state. Essentially, at first
they plan on putting patients here that are essentially overflow patients,
patients that don't have COVID nineteen. But if situations get
very dire, they are ready to convert this facility also
into a coronavirus hospital to treat patients here if need be.
(32:05):
Of course, Andrew Cuomo and other governors across the state
are preaching that things are bad now they're gonna get
even worse in the future, and they're trying to plan
for that now instead of later.
Speaker 7 (32:14):
But the Cuomo administration didn't stop there. It quietly initiated
another policy, one that Jeremy Lieberman would uncover a few
weeks later.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
When Jeremy's family first got word from the Gerwin Jewish
nursing home that the matriarch of their family was displaying
symptoms of COVID nineteen, Jeremy began researching how the virus
could have made its way into the facility, and what
he found was a memo posted deep on the nursing
home website. It was an edict issued by the State
of New York.
Speaker 9 (32:43):
Basically, what it said was that they were mandated, along
with other nursing homes, to accept COVID positive patients into
the nursing home. And you know, they claimed that they
were keeping them segmented on the first floor.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
And the memo came from the New York State Department
of Health on letterhead that listed Governor and Cuomo and
two other state health officials. It required that nursing homes
take recovering COVID nineteen patients. The memo read quote, no
resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the nursing
home solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of
(33:19):
COVID nineteen end quote. The mandate also prohibited the facility
from requiring a coronavirus test before admittance. Again, Jeremy Lieberman.
Speaker 9 (33:29):
What I can understand for the life of me is
the first thing we learned about this virus is that
it impacts older people more than anybody. So what you
did here, now was you literally lit a brush fire
in the middle of the dryest forest in the world,
(33:50):
and you just let it burn.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
To anyone with common sense, it was a shocking mandate.
At the time the memo was issued to nursing homes
in late March, there was a lot we were still
learning about the coronavirus, but one thing that was served
was that the COVID infection predominantly attacked elders, especially those
with underlying health conditions, the same exact population found in
nursing homes. The mandate was a recipe for disaster, and
(34:15):
New York wasn't the only state enacting this policy. New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania,
and California were among other states that mandated the admission
of COVID nineteen patients into their state regulated nursing homes.
Why why, in the wake of Kirkland, Washington would our
leaders make the decision to place COVID nineteen patients into
(34:36):
these vulnerable communities.
Speaker 30 (34:38):
I think the main reason for these policies has been
a fear based on hospital surges.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
That's doctor Michael Wasserman, geriatrician and president of the California
Association of Long Term Care Medicine.
Speaker 30 (34:56):
So there's been a fear that hospitals will be overwhelmed
and there would need to be a place to send
patients too.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Doctor Washerman has been one of the few physicians that
very early on began warning policymakers that a dangerous set
of circumstances were on a catastrophic collision course.
Speaker 30 (35:14):
On February twenty ninth, literally was when the first news
came out of Kirkland, Washington about the nursing home with COVID,
and my colleagues and I in the field of geriatrics
and long term care medicine.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Immediately knew what was coming.
Speaker 30 (35:32):
In fact, I was quoted literally on March eleventh, I
believe it was on NBC News nationally that this was
going to be the worst thing to have ever happened
to nursing homes in our lifetime.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
The doctor turned to other media outlets to sound the alarm.
Speaker 29 (35:52):
Across the country. COVID nineteen has created a crisis at
nursing home facilities. Sunday, more than one hundred residents and
staff tested positive at this Tennessee Rehability center outside Baltimore,
as staggering seventy seven seniors tested positive.
Speaker 31 (36:08):
Here.
Speaker 30 (36:09):
What we need to avoid is literally turning nursing homes
into our killing fields.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
As doctor Washerman and his colleagues pushed their message, news
reports began slowly seeping out about the coronavirus spreading through
nursing homes.
Speaker 13 (36:23):
And across the country. Tonight, we're seeing an alarming rise
in coronavirus cases at nursing homes. More than half the
nursing homes in New Jersey have at least one case.
Three patients have died. At a nursing home in Missouri,
and at a home near Richmond, Virginia, thirty three have died.
The question is should we be forced to introduce the
disease with such deadly potential into a population that has been.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Sheltered, and my experience tells me that would be ill advised.
Speaker 9 (36:51):
And it won't even help overcrowded hospitals, says doctor Michael Wasserman,
the head of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine.
Speaker 31 (36:59):
If you push folks out of the hostel hospitals to
make space and you push them into nursing homes a
couple weeks later, for every one of those you send
to the nursing home, you may get twenty back.
Speaker 6 (37:13):
This morning, the governor of New Jersey calling for a
statewide investigation of death set nursing homes after authorities say
they discovered seventeen bodies crammed into a small morgue at
the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
But the news reports were few and scattered, and we're
not applying pressure directly on the governor's issuing the mandate,
including Andrew Cuomo. In fact, the media was too busy
heaping praise on his efforts in New York the center
of the media industry.
Speaker 32 (37:39):
Andrew Cuomo has rapidly become for many people, the reassuring
face of America's fight against the coronavirus.
Speaker 30 (37:46):
People A Democrats want to see you replace jo Biden
on the ticket one of the reaction, and what you
think of one of that would you consider doing.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
That is on one hand flattering. On the other hand,
that is irrelevant.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Three weeks into the crisis, it was becoming clear that
the experts in New York were way off. At the
time the CUOMO required nursing homes to admit COVID nineteen patients,
the experts were projecting one hundred and forty thousand beds
were needed to deal with the future virus outbreak. However,
on April fourteenth, when the peak was projected to hit,
(38:21):
New York only had roughly nineteen thousand COVID hospitalizations, and
that number began to steadily decrease from there. The experts
were way off by a factor of seven. The Javid Center,
erected as an emergency hospital overflow facility, was nearly empty. Nevertheless,
Cuomo was still mandating nursing homes admit COVID nineteen patients.
(38:44):
On April twenty third, when asked about the policy, he
made the state's position clear.
Speaker 19 (38:49):
Did any nursing homes object to one was policy?
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Two? They don't have the right to object. That is
the rule, and that is the regulation, and they have
to comply with it. And the regulation is basic common sense.
If you can't provide adequate care, you can't have the
patient and your facility. And that's your basic fiduciary obligation,
I would say ethical obligation, and it's also your legal obligation.
(39:13):
If you can't provide adequate care, the person must be transferred.
If you have COVID people, they have to be quarantined,
they have to have separate staff. That's the rule. If
you can't do it, we'll put them in a facility
that can do it. That's the rule.
Speaker 32 (39:32):
If childhood leukemia was contagious and they were running out
of hospital beds, would you send those patients to summer
camps or grade schools or children's hospitals? Of course not.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
That's Mike Dark, a staff attorney at California Advocates for
Nursing Home Reform, a nonprofit based in San Francisco.
Speaker 32 (39:52):
But what these policies would do and are doing, are
pushing people who have contagious COVID into facility. These housing
populations that are the most vulnerable to COVID, people who
are older, people with serious underlying medical conditions, and those
(40:13):
people are by definition the people in skilled nursing facilities.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Like doctor Washerman Mike Dark says that the mandate for
nursing homes to accept COVID nineteen patients started as an
attempt to prepare for expert projected surges in hospitalization, but
when that rush never materialized, other parameters came into play.
Speaker 32 (40:32):
So there's a couple things at work here. First, if
you get discharged from a hospital to a skilled nursing facility,
you usually are covered by Medicare if you're an older person,
and Medicare provides a pretty good reimbursement rate. And there's
already been a decision that COVID patients discharge from acute
(40:54):
facilities will be covered by Medicare at a pretty high rate.
It's about eight hundred dollars a day. And that's partly
because these are patients with high what they call acuity
needs that they just need a lot of support. And
that's by contrast to the usual sort of population in
nursing homes, the stable population, people who live there for
(41:15):
some time, are people who, even if they didn't start
out for, they wind up for because nursing homes are
ten thousand dollars a month, and so those people are
on medical and medical pays two hundred dollars a day.
So the math kind of isn't hard to see that
if you take in COVID patients are getting reimbursed at
a pretty high rate, you will make a lot more
(41:38):
money than if you stick with your existing poor medical population.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Mister Dark also identifies a quality of nursing home residents
that left them vulnerable to these dangerous government mandates.
Speaker 32 (41:51):
People in nursing homes mostly don't vote, so they are
nobody's political constituency. They don't have any political action committees.
But the seeing home Bobby or the sort of broader
long term care industry is very powerful and very well moneyed,
and they know how to get a politician to jump.
(42:13):
And so there's a pretty simple political calculus embedded in
this too, which is this is a population which is
possible in our society to abandon to something like the
virus without there being any real consequences. I mean, families
will be upset, but they're not going to bout you
(42:33):
out of office.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
On a first, Javit Center emergency hospital closed.
Speaker 3 (42:45):
Early this morning.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
There were only about eight patients inside the Javits Hospital.
It's closing today because it's no longer really needed a
clear sign that things are finally getting better.
Speaker 1 (42:56):
The four thousand bed facility had only treated a little
over one thousand patients over the month it was open. Shockingly,
the nursing home mandate was still kept in place. However,
by the end of the first week of May, the
media began to do something it typically avoids. It began reporting.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
CBS News has confirmed more than twenty thousand people who
live or work in nursing homes and other long term
care facilities have died from the coronavirus.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
After The New York Times published a story claiming one
third of all US coronavirus deaths were at nursing homes,
Governor Cuomo pulled a cya move and quickly reversed his policy.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
Hospitals going forward cannot discharge a patient to a nursing
home unless the patient tests negative for COVID nineteen. So
we're just not going to send a person who is
positive to a nursing home after a hospital visit period.
Speaker 1 (44:02):
Which leads back to the question when should we stop
listening to the experts. The answer is when common sense
trumps the authorized experts. At the height of the COVID
nineteen hysteria in New York, infectious disease experts were predicting
that this state would need ninety thousand additional hospital beds.
That grossly flawed calculation forced Governor Cuomo to make decisions
(44:25):
that were completely at odds with common sense. He made
the rash decision to force nursing homes to take COVID
nineteen patients, knowing that the outbreak began at a Washington
State nursing home, and governors and other states followed suit.
There were experts like doctor Michael Wasserman and Mike Dark
that understood how disastrous this decision would be. They just
(44:46):
didn't have a seat at the table when the plan
was devised.
Speaker 30 (44:49):
It's really been a strange situation where I think the
average person intuitively got this. The experts in Geriatrix got it,
but somehow everyone else just missed it.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
The COVID nineteen presit has shown when the authorized experts
lack common sense, they should be rejected. But that won't
bring Jeremy Lieberman's grandmother.
Speaker 12 (45:11):
Back to me.
Speaker 9 (45:12):
It's common sense, right, you know, there's no reason my
kids are three and one that they couldn't have been
five and three and a five years old, you know,
shared a couple of awesome memories with their great grandmother,
you know, and and to me, like you said, experts
from experts, And unfortunately, this is the case that I've
seen and I've spoken to people about. There is a
(45:33):
monetary value put on the lives of people. And if
you're an older person and you don't have much, and
that was my grandmother, the monetary value of your life
is very low. My goal was to raise awareness, right
(46:03):
to stop the bleeding, you know. Basically my goal is
never to you know, get anything beyond that.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
Now, Jeremy has a final mission he's.
Speaker 9 (46:12):
Working towards, you know, trust me. I see the stuff
Cuomo's done in New York State and I think they've
done a lot right. But this one is very wrong,
very very wrong. So my number one goal is basically
vengeance for my grandmother. And you know, there needs to
be some accountability.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
But something tells me that the authorized experts that made
the deadly call will be fighting that accountability with everything
they have.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
The nursing home industry is now seeking immunity from lawsuits
tied to the outbreak. At least fifteen states have passed
laws offering some legal protection.
Speaker 22 (46:45):
See two families who've suffered losses inside nursing homes and
they're looking for accountability and they'd like to see justice.
They felt so much solace when you got up and
talked about Matilda's Law. They said, great, we'll protect it,
like our loved ones are going to be okay because
of Matilda's Law.
Speaker 3 (47:02):
What the comment to that, Yeah, the comment is this,
we lost one hundred and thirty nine people yesterday in hospitals.
Who is accountable for those one hundred and thirty nine deaths.
Who can we prosecute for those deaths? Nobody? Nobody. Older people,
(47:23):
vulnerable people are going to die from this virus.
Speaker 7 (47:29):
Red Pilled America's an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's produced by
Patrick Carrelci and me Adriana Quortez for Inform Ventures. Now,
our entire archive of episodes are only available to backstage subscribers.
To become a backstage subscriber, please visit Redpilled America dot
com and click the support button in the top menu.
That's red Pilled America dot com and click support in
the top menu. Thanks for listening, building,
Hosts And Creators
Adryana Cortez
Patrick Courrielche
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