ALBANY, NY – Admitting a degree of guilt for the first time, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that his government’s lack of transparency about the scope of virus-related deaths in New York’s nursing homes was a mistake. .
By failing to answer questions from state lawmakers and the media, Mr. Cuomo acknowledged that the state created a void that was “full of skepticism, cynicism and conspiracy theories that added to the confusion”.
Speaking at the State Capitol, Cuomo made his first comments since an aide to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, privately told some state lawmakers last week that the state had hidden data from the legislature because it feared the Trump administration would use the information to initiate a federal investigation into the state’s management of nursing homes.
The governor said on Monday that he did not provide information because his office was busy with the federal request, made in late August, and admitted that he did not answer questions about the total number of victims of parliamentarians or the press.
“There was a delay,” said Cuomo, a Democrat in his third term.
The governor’s explanation was quickly criticized by legislative leaders, who said they had not been informed of the possibility of the federal inquiry at the time and that the Cuomo government could have released the data as soon as it dealt with the federal request in early September.
More than 15,000 people died of coronavirus in New York nursing homes and long-term care facilities. But by the end of January, the state was reporting only about 8,500 deaths, excluding virus-related deaths that occurred physically outside these facilities, such as in hospitals.
About two weeks ago, State Attorney General Letitia James accused the Cuomo administration of severely underestimating asylum-related deaths. Hours later, the state updated these figures, adding thousands of deaths to the total. Since then, a court order has resulted in further updates, further increasing the number of official deaths.
Ms. James’ statement of an underestimation of the total deaths of asylum residents has fueled accusations that the Cuomo administration may have artificially reduced the number of such deaths to try to deflect the blame for a policy defined at the beginning of the pandemic: send asylum residents who had been hospitalized with the coronavirus back to nursing homes. The governor said the state is following federal guidelines to return residents and try to increase the hospital’s capacity, a statement he repeated on Monday.
Cuomo’s comments came as he tried to contain the political consequences of DeRosa’s comments, which prompted lawmakers from both parties to call for the governor’s removal of the emergency powers he exercised during the pandemic. A list of Republicans and at least one Democratic member of the state’s parliamentary delegation, Deputy Antonio Delgado, called for investigations into the Cuomo government.
Several other state Democrats also expressed outrage at the governor’s resistance to releasing data, including the chairmen of health committees in the Senate and the State Assembly. Republicans in Albany were also not influenced by the governor’s words.
“The governor seems unable to understand that it was his administration’s fault, and nobody else’s,” said Sen. Rob Ortt, a Republican from the interior who serves as the minority leader. “He continues to blame it anywhere, except on himself and his key employees.”
In his comments on Monday, Cuomo echoed DeRosa’s comments – made in a private conversation with top Democrats in Albany – that the government was concerned about a possible investigation by the Trump Justice Department, something he repeatedly characterized as a political attack, after being notified of federal involvement in August.
At the time, the governor’s office was also facing similar requests from the State Legislative Assembly and “we have suspended the request of state legislators,” said Cuomo.
But he insisted that parliamentary leadership was informed of the delay and said the federal inquiry was reported in the media. “They can’t say they didn’t know,” he said.
Carolina Rodriguez, a spokesman for Senate Democrats, questioned the governor’s claims.
“The governor is not entitled to his own facts or an alternative schedule of events,” she wrote on Twitter. “If the DOJ request took precedence and was the cause of the delayed response, then why did the Legislature not receive responses shortly after its administration responded to the DOJ request?”
In fact, the Cuomo government responded to the Department of Justice’s questions in writing by 9 September. But state health officials did not respond to questions from the legislature until last week, almost six months later.
A State Assembly spokesman, Michael Whyland, also tweeted that although the governor’s team had “contacted the team and said it needed more time to provide the information requested by members”, there was no mention of a federal investigation at the time.
“In addition to what was in the news, the speaker was unaware of an official DOJ inquiry,” said Whyland, referring to Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, deputy from the Bronx.
The Justice Department never formally opened an investigation, but the lack of complete information – and the apparent aversion to disclosing it – has led to scrutiny of the governor’s records, both in relation to nursing homes and as an outspoken chief executive. with deference to facts.
That image included the publication of a memoir about his work on the pandemic before it ended, offering “leadership lessons” as well as his acceptance of an International Emmy award by the daily press conferences he held at the beginning of the outbreak.
During the 90-minute press conference on Monday, Mr. Cuomo was asked if he apologized for his actions and responded carefully to his words.
“Excuse yourself? Look, I said several times that we made a mistake in creating the void,” he said, explaining his main mistake as not providing a more complete account and thus allowing other narratives to spread.
“We should have provided more information more quickly,” said Cuomo, saying that his government was “very focused on getting the job done and facing the current crisis.”
He admitted, however, that “we should have done a better job”, adding that it caused “confusion, cynicism and pain for the families of loved ones”.
“I take responsibility for that,” he said. “The total death count was always accurate, nothing was hidden from anyone, but we created the void. And it created pain. And I feel really bad about it. “
Luis Ferré-Sadurní contributed reporting.