The same New York “health officials” who told you to “hunker down” at home to prevent COVID-19 disease transmission for years are now blaming a heat wave that kept city-dwellers indoors as a likely driver in an increase in new cases. 

The New York Times reported last week that cases across the state and hospitalizations are increasing and called on residents to get tested if they are exhibiting symptoms. The paper said hospital admissions were up 22 percent over the previous week and the number of reported cases increased by 55 percent. (The actual number of cases is usually much higher since people do not test and may not be exhibiting symptoms.)

There were just over 300 people hospitalized in the city with the virus, according to the paper. 

There has been a 10 percent increase in patients hospitalized with COVID in the U.S., with more than 7,100, which is below the more than 150,000 during the peak omicron surge.

David Wohl, a University of North Carolina infectious disease doctor, told WTVD, that the increase in infections over the summer months is predictable given that people go indoors when it gets very hot. 

“And when you’re inside, the ventilation is different; people are closer together. So I think that’s part of it,” he said. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in May an updated ventilation policy, which CNN noted is the first time a federal agency “has set a target—five air changes per hour—for how much rooms and buildings should be ventilated.”

Joseph Allen, director of the Harvard Healthy Buildings Program, called the CDC’s move “a monumental shift.”

“We haven’t had this. We haven’t had health-based ventilation standards,” he said.

The Times’s report said New York City has seen seven waves of COVID and it is believed that 20 percent of New Yorkers have had the virus at least three times. Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at CUNY Graduate School of Public Health who is likely fully vaccinated, said he came down with the virus three times.

“I was relieved that it was not as rough as the other two,” he said.

TRENDPOST: Health officials who now blame staying indoors for the jump in COVID-19 cases are spreading misinformation about the virus if you believed the bullshit that the White House and governors were selling in the early stages of the outbreak.

Health officials told Americans to stay home as much as possible to prevent the spread. Most states, led by power-hungry governors like New York’s Andrew Cuomo, ordered residents to stay at home and told “nonessential businesses” to close their doors. 

On 22 March 2020, Cuomo announced the “New York State on PAUSE” executive order, which was a 10-point policy that called for 100 percent of the workforce to stay home, except for essential services. He banned all nonessential gatherings of individuals of any size for any reason. 

Cuomo said the state will enforce the order by monitoring these activities. He said there would be civil fines and mandatory closures for businesses found not in compliance.

“I am not kidding about this,” he told reporters, according to Politico. “The numbers are going up at such a rate that it’s more than doubled the capacity of the hospital system. … We can’t get more ventilators.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said a few days later that the federal government should impose a nationwide stay-at-home order.

Fauci was interviewed by CNN about how some states like Florida refused to lock down, and he said he didn’t understand the issue.

He said, “If you look at what’s going on in this country, I just don’t understand why we’re not doing that. We really should be.”

The Trends Journal has reported extensively on how the government has been proven wrong in every major initiative during the outbreak. 

Cuomo, who was forced to resign over sexual misconduct allegations, became the face of government-wide malpractice. (See “LYING FRAUDS: CUOMO & NY HEALTH DEPARTMENT” 22 Mar 2022, “N.Y. NURSING HOME COVID DEATHS: CUOMO CAN’T COUNT” 18 Aug 2020, and “N.Y. NURSING HOME COVID DEATHS ON THE RISE” 19 Jan 2021.)

Cuomo made it mandatory that elder care facilities take in hospital patients who had the coronavirus.

According to a report from the New York State Department of Health, “6,326 COVID-positive residents were admitted to [nursing home] facilities” following Cuomo’s mandate that nursing homes accept the readmission of COVID-positive patients from hospitals.

On 25 March 2020, the health department, following “killer” Cuomo’s orders, issued a directive stating, “No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.” 

The directive also said nursing homes “are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”

The Guardian reported in May 2020—during the catastrophe at the facilities in New York—that in 2018, when Cuomo was in a tough campaign for office, he received a “flood of cash” from the Greater New York Hospital Association, a lobbying group for hospital systems, including some that own nursing homes.

In March, the donation seemed to pay dividends for the lobby.

Cuomo signed a new law that “quietly” shielded these hospitals from the threat of lawsuits tied to the virus. (The law was eventually rolled back in August of that year, after the damage was done.) 

We wrote on 19 January 2021: “Rather than taking measures to prevent those most susceptible to the virus, politicians and the COVID Cops target young people gathering at bars and lockdown restaurants, despite a 1.4 percent virus infection rate, destroying millions of businesses and tens of millions of lives with lockdown rules that lack scientific data.” 

Gerald Celente has been continuing to cover the issue and spoke with Dr. Scott Jensen last week about the controversy behind the official death toll attributed to the virus. (See “RFK JR. SLAMS COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS DURING FOX NEWS TOWN HALL” 1 Aug 2023.)