Pols: Show us SUNY big’s COV-report data
Gov. Hochul should release all records regarding SUNY Chancellor James Malatras’ role in preparing a discredited state Health Department report that covered up the extent of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes, lawmakers said on Monday.
The in-house report last summer absolved the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo of contributing to the soaring COVID-19 death toll in nursing homes through its policies, particularly an order that required the facilities to accept recovering COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals.
Independent studies have concluded that the transfer policy did contribute to COVID-19 infections and deaths in nursing homes.
Malatras (right), a former top Cuomo aide who served on the gover- nor’s COVID-19 task force, was appointed chancellor of the State University of New York at Cuomo’s behest last August without a customary national search.
He previously served as president of SUNY’s online Empire State College.
“To move forward as a state, we need a full accounting of the disastrous nursing home policies of former Governor Andrew Cuomo, which allegedly lead to thousands of needless deaths,” Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) said in a letter to Hochul provided to The Post.
“I urge you to make public all records pertaining to the role James Malatras played in handling the New York State Health Department July report that we now know was altered to underreport nursing home deaths.”
Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens) added, “Governor Hochul must release all records pertaining to Jim Malatras’ role in covering up nursing home data, which shows a clear pattern of executive abuse of power that led to Cuomo raking in $5.1 million to his personal bank account.”
Malatras told The Post on Sunday, “I absolutely did not alter the numbers” in the COVID report.
Malatras also has emerged as a figure in the controversy over Cuomo’s COVID-19 memoir, “American Crisis,” for which the governor was paid $5.1 million.
The Post reported on Sunday that he was grilled by investigators with the Assembly Judiciary Committee for allegedly pitching in on the book during work hours.