Assemblyman Chris Tague (R,C,I,Ref-Schoharie) is continuing to call for an independent investigation into the Department of Health’s handling of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic that led to the deaths of thousands of patients. Tague believes the hearing conducted Monday without any Department of Health representatives present to take questions was not sufficient and that only an independent and non-partisan investigation will fully bring to light what caused these thousands of deaths.

“These sham hearings are an insult to the thousands of families that lost their loved ones in nursing homes during this pandemic” said Tague. “It was bad enough last week that not all legislators were given the chance to ask Commissioner Howard Zucker questions in the very brief amount of time he took them, but now there is nobody from the Health Department there to question at all. This issue isn’t something the governor and his administration should be hiding from, because this isn’t about blame or politics, this is about figuring out what went wrong which caused thousands of people to lose their lives in a matter of weeks, and making sure that never happens again.”