Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former governor of New York was found to have personally edited a Department of Health report dated July 2020, in which he severely undercounted COVID deaths in nursing homes by the thousands. The revelation came via a report released by the New York State Assembly on Monday.
According to LifeNews, Cuomo ordered the Department of Health to develop the report in response to intense criticism the disgraced New York governor faced after his March 25 directive ordering nursing homes in the state to accept COVID patients. The State Assembly Judiciary Committee's report summarized its findings following an eight-month impeachment investigation of the former Democratic leader, who resigned over multiple sexual harassment allegations in August.
The report showed that officials were aware that the number of COVID fatalities in nursing homes were approximately 10,000, but the final version of the report said that there were only 6,500 deaths, which was a figure that "reflected only the residents who were physically present at a nursing home at the time of their death." The report stated, "Throughout the drafting process, the former Governor reviewed and edited the draft DOH Report on multiple occasions, and made edits to strengthen the defense of the March 25 Directive."
Moreover, the report said that the former Governor and his senior staff were "not fully transparent with the public regarding the number of COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents." The committee said that they are alrea "cooperating with law enforcement with respect to these issues."
The report added that some health officials were concerned over Cuomo's COVID response team, which was in fact not made up of medical officials and did not base their decisions on scientific or medical advice. A senior DOH official even admitted to failing to speak to Cuomo and his senior staff freely as they would often reject DOH advice with regards to handling the pandemic in New York. The report stated, "The senior DOH official felt that speaking up could result in an even more limited ability to provide advice going forward."
In March 2020, less than three weeks after the state of New York recorded its first COVID case, Cuomo expressed interest in writing what would become his book, "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic." The former governor received a "guaranteed compensation package of $5.2 million in royalty advances" for this book. A senior state official admitted that they were required to handle tasks for the making of the said book, which "[compromised his] ability to work on COVID-related matters."
Alex Shephard of New Republic argued that despite having been out of office for months, Cuomo must be punished for his missteps, including how he "abused his power" and his "strenuous denials of wrongdoing." Shephard lamented how the ex-governor "has still largely escaped blame for what may be the biggest scandal of his administration."
