In a leaked appeal, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s closest adviser admitted that he had covered up the number of deaths in nursing homes across the state by COVID-19.
The Vice Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, in a call with Democratic lawmakers, admitted that they had delayed the release of data on coronavirus deaths in nursing homes for fear that the Justice Department, then under the Donald Trump administration, could use those numbers “against him.”
The comments of Melissa DeRosa, considered Cuomo’s closest assistant, have led to an increase in the number of lawmakers, both from the Democratic and Republican parties, demanding that the governor be withdrawn from the emergency powers he has, forcing him to rule. can impose and unilaterally restrict restrictions regarding the coronavirus.
The controversial appeal, made by Zoom and of a private nature, took place with Democratic lawmakers, who had asked for additional data on the number of deaths in nursing homes last August.
DeRosa admitted that he had asked lawmakers last September if the Cuomo government could “ pause ” data collection and release the information after the country’s Justice Department investigated New York State’s response to the coronavirus. .
“In fact, we stood still because we were in a position where we weren’t sure what we were going to give the Justice Department or what we were going to give you, (because) what we said was going to be used against us and we didn’t know if there was one. investigation was coming, ”DeRosa said in the conversation.
“That played a big part in all of this,” he admitted.
The details of this private interaction were released by the governor’s own office after a local conservative outlet, the New York Post, published some of the information.
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Cuomo was already accused of ‘making up’ for coronavirus deaths in nursing homes in New York, the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, in the spring of 2020, after Attorney General Letitia James published a Detailed Report.
In it, James claimed that Cuomo officials had not taken into death all those elderly nursing homes who had been transferred from these types of centers to hospitals and who eventually died there.
After the information from the New York Post was published, DeRosa issued a statement saying that in the call he was simply trying to explain that “the lawmakers’ request should be delayed in order to consider the federal government’s request first” .
“As I said in the appeal with lawmakers, we were not able to fulfill their request as quickly as we would have liked. But we are determined to be better allies in the future as we share the same goal of being as healthy as possible during the pandemic, ”he emphasized in the letter.
Last January, James released a report denouncing that the state had not counted thousands of deaths from COVID-19 in nursing homes, which could be up to 50 percent more than the official one.
The state government has placed more than 8,500 dead in homes, but James’s research indicates the number could be much higher and denounced that several of these institutions failed to follow basic measures to stop the infections.
Since the crisis broke out as a result of the pandemic, many voices have accused the Cuomo government of exacerbating the crisis in these homes with measures such as the directive ordering these institutions to accept coronavirus positive patients.
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