New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide reportedly admitted and apologized for hiding the state’s coronavirus death toll in nursing homes out of fear of political retribution.
The admission was made by Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa while speaking on a video conference call with state Democratic leaders, according to the New York Post.
“Basically, we froze,” DeRosa told lawmakers on the call, explaining the panic that ensued in late August after former President Donald Trump began tweeting about the state’s nursing home death controversy and directed the Justice Department to take action.
“Because then, we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation,” DeRosa continued. “That played a very large role into this.”
DeRosa also apologized to the Democrats on the two-hour call for putting them in a precarious political position, acknowledging that withholding the data was “not fair.”
“So, we do apologize,” she said. “I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans.”
Multiple Democrats on the call were reportedly not receptive to DeRosa’s apology, including Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried.
“I don’t have enough time today to explain all the reasons why I don’t give that any credit at all,” Gottfried said on the call.
Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim, who was also on the call, described DeRosa’s admission by saying it was “like they admitted that they were trying to dodge having any incriminating evidence that might put the administration or the [Health Department] in further trouble with the Department of Justice.”
It was reported on Thursday that just over 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to hundreds of New York nursing homes following Cuomo’s controversial March directive mandating that senior living facilities accept sick patients. That number is 40% higher than what the state’s health department has publicly disclosed.
Cuomo has been widely criticized for his handling of the virus in nursing homes, with many believing that his March directive, which was deleted from the state’s health department website, directly contributed to over 11,000 coronavirus nursing home deaths.
Last month, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report concluding that the Cuomo administration undercounted coronavirus deaths in nursing homes by approximately 50%.
The governor has consistently defended his record on the issue, saying in October that nursing homes “never needed” to take coronavirus patients and suggesting the federal government was to blame for inaccurate data.
“We explained that the Trump administration was in the midst of a politically motivated effort to blame democratic states for COVID deaths and that we were cooperating with Federal document productions and that was the priority and now that it is over we can address the state legislature,” Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi told the Washington Examiner. “That said, we were working simultaneously to complete the audit of information they were asking for.”
DeRosa issued a response to the controversy late Thursday night saying, “I was explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we needed to temporarily set aside the Legislature’s request to deal with the federal request first. We informed the houses of this at the time. We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and vaccine rollout. As I said on a call with legislators, we could not fulfill their request as quickly as anyone would have liked. But we are committed to being better partners going forward as we share the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic.”
