ALBANY, NY (AP) – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrote a book on dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. Now he is facing growing allegations that he has covered up the true pandemic death toll among nursing home residents, attacks that challenge his reputation for straightforward competence and can cloud his political future.
State lawmakers called for an investigation, stripping Cuomo of his emergency powers and even his resignation after new details emerged this week about why certain nursing home data was kept secret for months, despite requests from lawmakers and others.
Top assistant Melissa DeRosa told lawmakers the data had been delayed because officials were concerned that the information would be “used against us” by the Trump administration’s Justice Department.
The new salvos from Republicans and Cuomo’s fellow Democrats mark a stark turnaround from the pandemic’s early days, when Cuomo’s daily briefings helped bolster a national reputation for leadership. The briefings, in which he promised to deliver ‘just the facts’, earned him an international Emmy and helped lead to his book ‘American Crisis’.
He stepped in, more than a little bit. It would be bad enough if this had come out and he hadn’t celebrated and celebrated in public because of his handling of the pandemic, ”said Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College. “But apart from that, it doesn’t get more serious than this. You’re talking about the deaths of 15,000 people. “
The Cuomo government reported dramatically the number of COVID-19 deaths statewide for months among long-term care residents. It’s now close to 15,000, up from the 8,500 previously announced.
The new toll is about one-seventh of the roughly 90,000 people living in nursing homes as of 2019 in New York, which has one of the most nursing home residents in the country.
Cuomo has pointed to a small but growing body of research suggesting that uncontrolled community spread is the biggest factor in nursing home outbreaks, and he has said insufficient assistance from the federal government with travel restrictions, testing, and protective equipment New York City and its suburbs particularly vulnerable.
He has dismissed criticism as political, noting that the thousands of deaths of nursing home residents in hospitals were always counted in the state’s total number.
“Died in a hospital, died in a nursing home – they died,” he said on January 29.
The uproar may not have the same impact on the third-term Democrat as if he were to get re-election for the first time this year, Zaino said. But it could make him less likely to be tapped for a post with Biden’s administration.
And Cuomo – who says he will be participating again in 2022 – is now facing criticism increasingly coming from members of his own party.
“The governor’s lack of transparency and hindrance regarding the actions of his administration in the nursing home is unacceptable,” said Senator John Mannion, one of the Democratic state’s 14 senators, who said Friday that Cuomo’s extensive emergency powers were so should be withdrawn as soon as possible.
The higher death toll was not announced until hours after a report late last month from Democratic State Attorney General Letitia James investigating the government’s failure to admit nursing home residents who died in hospitals. The updated numbers supported the findings of an Associated Press investigation last year that concluded the state could underestimate the number of deaths by thousands.
Supporters and relatives of nursing home residents have questioned whether the spread of the virus in nursing homes was fueled by a March 25 state directive that prohibited facilities from refusing people just because they had COVID-19. The guideline was intended to free up space in fast-filling hospitals.
Debra Diehl, 62, who lost her 85-year-old father, Reeves Hupman, to suspected COVID-19 in May in a nursing home outside Albany, wants to know why Cuomo and the state stopped doing more to separate residents who may have had the virus , perhaps by placing them in field hospitals.
“People came up, sent from state hospitals,” Diehl said. “It just looked like Typhoid Marys, but just spread it further. He didn’t know what he was doing or he didn’t care. “
In response to a request for freedom of information from the AP in May, the Department of Health released data This week show that more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York City were released from hospitals to nursing homes from March 25 to May 10, when Cuomo reversed the directive.
The state published a report stating that patients did not control transmission of the virus in nursing homes, although it did not rule out whether the guideline played a role.
Cuomo has said the facilities had a responsibility to only accept patients they could care for. State public health inspectors have discovered infection control violations in dozens of nursing homes and fined at least $ 1 million in fines in the midst of the pandemic.
Still, DeRosa estimates that nursing home residents in New York represent 40% of the lives lost this winter. New York has reported more than 10,000 deaths since December 1.
The disclosure of DeRosa’s comments this week during a conference call with Democratic lawmakers essentially brought months of complaints to a boiling point.
She said the state “froze” in responding to lawmakers’ request in August to reduce the number of nursing home residents who died in hospitals because officials also responded to a Justice Department investigation and were concerned that “what we’re starting to say to. will be used to us, and we weren’t sure if there would be an investigation. “
DeRosa released a statement on Friday saying the state was slow to respond to lawmakers for doing business with the Justice Department, and then with the virus resurgence in the fall and vaccinations. The governor’s office declined to comment further.
“It gave the impression that they were trying to whitewash the information,” said Senator Rachel May, one of 14 Democrats calling for Cuomo’s emergency powers to be revoked.
Republican Senate leader Rob Ortt said Cuomo should “demand the immediate resignation of everyone involved in this cover-up, and if he knew, he should be removed from office.”
The criticism can be echoed because it fits with a much-heard complaint that Cuomo’s controlling nature, despite all his capabilities, can undermine his effectiveness.
Cuomo rejected that idea, writing in his book, “You show me a person who’s not in charge, and I’ll show you a person who probably isn’t very successful.”
For Christina Greer, political scientist at Fordham University, the recent revelations “raise questions: Can we rely on news coming out of the governor’s office? Not just from nursing homes, but can we trust in schools, can we trust in prisons, can we trust in other communities?
“It has definitely cast a bad shadow on the administration,” she said.
Peltz reported from New York.