Cuomo ripped for count on nursing home deaths
ALBANY, N.Y. – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wrote a book on managing the COVID-19 crisis. Now he faces intensifying accusations that he covered up the death toll of the pandemic on nursing home residents, attacks that challenge his reputation for straight-shooting competency and could cloud his political future.
State lawmakers called for investigations, stripping Cuomo of his emergency powers and even his resignation after new details emerged last week about why certain nursing home data was kept under wraps for months, despite requests from lawmakers and others.
Top aide Melissa DeRosa told lawmakers the data was delayed because officials worried that the information was “going to be used against us” by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice.
The new salvos from Republicans and Cuomo’s fellow Democrats mark a stark turnaround from early days of the pandemic, when Cuomo’s daily briefings helped cement a national reputation for leadership. The briefings, in which he promised to deliver “just the facts,” won him an International Emmy and helped lead to his book, “American Crisis.”
“He stepped in it, more than a little bit. It would be bad enough if this had come out and he had not been publicly sort of celebrating, and been celebrated, for his handling of the pandemic,” said Jeanne Zaino, a political science professor at Iona College. “But putting that aside, it doesn’t get more serious than this. You’re talking about the deaths of 15,000 people.”
The Cuomo administration for months dramatically underreported the statewide number of COVID-19 deaths among long-term care residents. It is now nearly 15,000, up from the 8,500 previously disclosed. The new toll amounts to about one-seventh of the roughly 90,000 people living in nursing homes as of 2019 in New York, which has among the most care home residents in the nation.
Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt said Cuomo “needs to demand the immediate resignation of anyone involved in this cover-up, and if he was aware, he must be removed from office.”
The criticism could resonate because it fits with a common complaint that for all of his ability, Cuomo’s controlling nature can undercut his effectiveness. Cuomo has dismissed that idea, writing in his book: “You show me a person who is not controlling, and I’ll show you a person who is probably not highly successful.”
To Fordham University political scientist Christina Greer, the recent disclosures “call into question: Can we trust news coming out of the governor’s office? Not just out of nursing homes, but can we trust it about schools, can we trust it about prisons, can we trust it about other communities?”
Cuomo has pointed to a small but growing body of research suggesting unchecked community spread is the biggest factor in nursing home outbreaks, and he has said inadequate federal government help with travel restrictions, testing and protective gear left New York City and its suburbs particularly vulnerable.
He has dismissed criticism as political and noted that the thousands of nursing home residents’ deaths in hospitals were always counted in the state’s overall total.
“Died in a hospital, died in a nursing home – they died,” he said Jan. 29.
The uproar might not have the same impact on the third-term Democrat as it would if he were facing reelection for the first time this year, Zaino said. But it could make him less likely to be tapped for a post in the Biden administration.
“The governor’s lack of transparency and stonewalling regarding his administration’s nursing home actions is unacceptable,” said state Sen. John Mannion, one of 14 Democratic state senators who said Friday that Cuomo’s expanded emergency powers should be repealed as soon as possible.