State health officials could see from the data that a significant number of residents died after being transferred to hospitals. State health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker has known since June that officials in his department believed the data was good enough to be included in the report, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
But Zucker testified to lawmakers in early August that the department was still auditing the figures and could not release them. State senator Gustavo Rivera, chairman of the health commission, suggested during the hearing that the data was being hidden to improve the governor’s image.
“This is a problem, bro,” Rivera told Dr. Zucker. “It seems, sir, that in this case, you are choosing to define it differently so that it can look better.”
In a statement released on Thursday, Health Department spokesman Gary Holmes echoed Garvey’s words, contesting that the numbers were ready in time for the report and saying that, regardless, they would not have changed his conclusions.
Dr. Eleanor Adams was the leader of the Department of Health in the report, but her draft was substantially rewritten by Mr. Malatras, now dean of the New York State University system. He was among several officials and former advisers temporarily recruited by Mr. Cuomo to help respond to the pandemic.
The comings and goings went well beyond the usual process in the governor’s office to suggest edits to an agency report and at times became “intense”, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
Health officials felt that the governor’s office, whose opinion was conveyed by Malatras, wanted to oversimplify. They feared it was no longer a true scientific report, but they feared for their jobs if they did not agree.