The following guest contribution was written by Brad Wenstrup, a former U.S. Congressman, doctor of podiatric medicine, combat surgeon, and chairman of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic during the 118th Congress.

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Rand Paul subpoenaed Dr. Anthony Fauci to determine whether U.S. tax dollars helped seed the pandemic, reminding us of the sad reality that, years after COVID-19 first struck, the fight for basic truth is still being waged.

Having chaired the Subcommittee on the Pandemic to investigate our nation’s response to this generational crisis, I know firsthand how many critical questions remain unanswered. Today, with the rising world disease outbreaks, the unresolved failures of our pandemic response loom larger than ever.

After 11 years in Congress, I remain baffled by New York’s handling of the first wave, which contributed to the deaths of over 15,000 nursing home residents. I’ve never seen such a blatant breach of public health vigilance. Why did state leaders send COVID-positive patients into the homes of our most high-risk populations?

The American public is still waiting for accountability.

We called then-Governor Andrew Cuomo to testify to understand how such a decision was made — and ensure it never happens again. Instead of leading with truth and integrity, the former governor was evasive and contradictory. Cuomo insisted his March 25, 2020 order — which sent COVID-positive patients to cohabitate with seniors, a dangerously immunocompromised population — simply “followed the federal guidelines.” Five years later, that claim still awaits verification from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other public health authorities.

Our Subcommittee found that federal guidance from both the CDC and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expressed the opposite to the Cuomo Administration’s interpretation: to prioritize protecting vulnerable nursing home residents and for facilities to implement transmission-based precautions before accepting potentially infectious patients.

Cuomo’s deadly directive did something very different: it required nursing homes to “comply with expedited receipt” of residents returning from hospitals and declared that “[n]o resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the nursing home solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.” It also barred facilities from requiring a negative test before admission.

Over six weeks, more than 9,000 COVID-positive patients were transferred into nursing homes that were unprepared to protect their residents. This was not permissive guidance. It was a binding state directive carrying the force of law.

Our Subcommittee’s final report was unequivocal in its finding that “the March 25 Directive was not consistent with applicable federal guidance regarding hospital to nursing home transfers and COVID-19 related infection control.” In fact, we later referred Cuomo’s denial of editing the New York State Health Department’s July 6, 2020 report to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

The false narrative persists. Multiple reports and public officials continue to claim Cuomo was simply following federal guidance, including New York Attorney General Letitia James in a disappointing report released in the pandemic’s wake. And yet, bipartisan voices still seek a clear answer. Rep. Mike Lawler (R) and others, including Rep. Dan Goldman (D), sent letters to public health bodies requesting a formal determination. When Rep. Lawler pressed Governor Kathy Hochul’s administration last year, they irresponsibly deflected responsibility to “former officials,” even though her own lieutenant governor had unsuccessfully pressed the state Health Department for answers — and she was lieutenant governor at the time.

My Democratic colleague Rep. Ami Bera put it best: “[f]or the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone would take a COVID-positive patient and put them in a nursing home [with non-COVID-19 residents], that’s medical malpractice in my mind.”

As a result, more than 15,000 New York nursing home residents died from the virus. Worse, most died alone because, ironically and devastatingly, the state banned visitors from nursing homes just 12 days prior to requiring they accept COVID-19 patients.

The imperative is prevention. We must learn from this failure if we are to better protect people in the future. Federal agencies owe all of us the truth before the lessons of this dark chapter harden into convenient myth.

Cuomo’s directive stands as a tragic and preventable failure. By denying error and fomenting the myth of “following federal guidance,” he left behind a dangerous ambiguity. The federal government should dispel it with clarity and force.

The CDC and CMS must issue written determination on whether New York’s March 25 directive aligned with federal guidance. If, as the evidence strongly suggests, the directive did not, Congress should act: invite Hochul to testify, call James to explain, examine the closed Manhattan D.A. investigation, and refer for prosecution anyone who falsely testified to Congress that the directive followed federal guidance. Congress just showed its resolve to compel such answers. It should show New York the same.

Truth is the only path to accountability for the past and stronger protection during future pandemics. The CDC and CMS must issue a determination on whether New York’s March 25 directive aligned with federal guidance, and Congress should turn their subpoena power toward Albany. Only then can we say we learned the hardest lesson of all: protecting lives must come before political self-preservation.