Cuomo insists death deletion wasn’t wrong

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration insisted Friday that a quest for scientific accuracy, not political concerns, prompted members of his COVID-19 task force to ask the state Health Department to delete data last summer from a report on nursing home patients killed by the disease.

The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, citing documents and people with knowledge of the administration’s internal discussions, reported late Thursday that aides — including Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor — pushed health officials to edit the July report so it counted only residents who died inside long-term care facilities and not those who died later after being transferred to a hospital.

At the time, Mr. Cuomo was trying to deflect criticism that his administration hadn’t done enough to protect nursing home residents. About a third of the state’s nursing home fatalities were excluded from the report as a result of the change.

The revelations about the removal of the higher fatality number come as the Democrat also faces accusations he sexually harassed two former aides and a womanwhom he met at a wedding.

Mr. Cuomo apologized Wednesday for acting “in a way that made people feel uncomfortable” but rejected calls for his resignation and said he would fully cooperate with an investigation into the harassment allegations. Federal investigators are scrutinizing his administration’s handling of nursing home data.