New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s top advisers influenced state health officials to remove data from a public report showing that deaths in coronavirus-related nursing homes in the state exceeded numbers previously recognized by the government, says a report bombastic.
Details about the July report were released Thursday night in an article first published by The Wall Street Journal.
The final report focused only on nursing home residents who died inside these facilities and did not include nursing home residents who were transferred to hospitals after falling ill, the Journal reported.
This means that the total reported by the state of 6,432 deaths of residents in nursing homes was significantly less than the actual number of deaths in nursing homes, sources with knowledge of the preparation of the state report told the newspaper.
State officials now estimate the death toll in nursing homes and long-term care facilities in New York at more than 15,000 residents, the Journal reported. The number represents deaths since March 2020 of residents confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus or presumably to have contracted it, the report said.
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Cuomo defended his government’s actions on deaths in nursing homes, saying state officials followed federal guidelines and worked to manage the hospital’s capacity as the virus spread, the Journal reported.
The July report was produced after state legislators and family members of people who died raised questions about a state Department of Health directive of March 25, 2020 on policies related to patients in nursing homes and the coronavirus – a directive that critics claimed it may have spurred the spread of the virus.
Then, on February 10 this year, Cuomo’s aide, Melissa DeRosa, told state lawmakers that state officials delayed the release of data from nursing homes last year, fearing it could trigger a federal investigation by the Trump administration. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division began seeking data from New York and other states last August, the Journal reported.
After the Journal story appeared on Thursday night, at least two members of the Cuomo government issued statements in defense of the government’s actions.
Beth Garvey, a special lawyer and senior adviser to Cuomo, said that “off-site data” – meaning deaths in hospitals – were omitted from the July report after the state Department of Health “could not confirm that they had been properly verified . “
“That did not change the conclusion of the report, which was and is that the March 25 order ‘was not a factor that led to infections or fatalities in nursing homes’.”
She added: “COVID Task Force officials did not request that the report conclude that the March 25 order played no role; in fact, Task Force Members, knowing that the report needed to withstand rigorous public scrutiny, were very careful not to overdo the statistical analysis presented in the Overall, ensuring public confidence in the conclusion was the ultimate goal of DOH and the COVID Task Force when publishing the report. “
Gary Holmes, a spokesman for the state Department of Health, issued the following statement, referring to the state’s July report and to Howard Zucker, the state’s health commissioner:
“This report, which states that the March 25 statement was not a cause of death in nursing homes, was a collaborative process between DOH and the COVID task force. The purpose of the report was to ensure that the public had a clear apolitical assessment of how COVID entered nursing homes at the height of the pandemic.All of the reviewed data sets came to a common conclusion – that staff dissemination was probably the main factor that introduced COVID into these nursing homes. Although early versions of the report included off-site deaths, the COVID task force was not satisfied that the data was verified against hospital data, so the final report used only data for on-site deaths , which were released in the report. While off-site deaths were kept separate for verification, the findings were supported by both sets of data. el with the final report and fully believes in his conclusion that the main factor that introduced COVID in nursing homes was sp read brought by the team. Even Bill Hammond of the conservative think tank Empire Center found that the March 25 statement was not the main motivator for COVID in nursing homes. The decision was initially made to release the report without the data outside the facility and, subsequently, update the report to include off-site deaths. This was done in February and, as Dr. Zucker testified to the legislature, the conclusions remained the same as in July. ”
The Journal’s report also sparked a reaction from New York Democratic MP Ron Kim, who previously claimed that Cuomo had threatened him for speaking out against the governor’s handling of the state’s nursing homes.
“This is criminal,” wrote Kim on Twitter. “Leading government aides pressured state health officials to remove from a public report data showing more deaths in nursing homes. The changes that Cuomo’s aides made to the report reveal that they had more complete accounts of deaths from NH already in the summer of 2020. “
Reports of discrepancies in the count of coronavirus-related deaths in the state’s nursing homes have sparked harsh criticism of Cuomo, who initially drew national acclaim for his treatment of the coronavirus – despite the state of New York being an epicenter of the U.S. for its deadly spread.
Now, reports from the nursing home are being accompanied by accusations of sexual harassment against the 63-year-old Democrat, who is increasingly facing bipartisan resignations – as well as an investigation planned by the New York attorney general.
The Journal’s story about nursing home data was published the same night that the “CBS Evening News” broadcast an interview with Charlotte Bennett, one of at least three women who made allegations of sexual misconduct against Cuomo.
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During that interview, Bennett – a 25-year-old former Cuomo advisor – suggested that Cuomo’s positive media coverage of Cuomo’s treatment of the coronavirus may have stimulated his ego.
“I think he felt untouchable in many ways,” Bennett told Nora O’Donnell of CBS.
Bennett accused Cuomo of “trying to sleep with me”, while two other women – Lindsey Boylan and Anna Ruch – also accused him of inappropriate comments and behavior.
Cuomo, at a news conference on Wednesday, denied that he intentionally mistreated women. He apologized, saying he now realized that his comments had an unwanted effect and said he “learned an important lesson” but had no plans to step down.
Michael Ruiz of Fox News contributed to this story.