Pols blast Cuomo over
nursing home data
COURIER LIFE, FEBRUARY 19-25, 2021 5
PUBLIC TRUST’
ported COVID-19 fatalities by
up to 50 percent.
But it wasn’t until the
judge’s ruling in favor of Empire
Center’s Freedom of Information
Law request that
the death count at each longterm
care facility was made
public. The authorities’ reluctance
to release this data
raises questions about the
state’s motives, according to
the fellow with Empire Center
who fi led the FOIL request.
“This is obviously public
data that they’ve been gathering
from the beginning.
There’s been this intense interest
in it, and people have
been asking about it,” senior
fellow Bill Hammond told
Brooklyn Paper. “I feel like
the whole saga has really undermined
the Department of
Health’s credibility in terms
of putting them in opposition
to everyone who’s been paying
attention.”
Health offi cials also consistently
released lower numbers
than the facilities themselves,
and attacked people
for demanding clarity, Hammond
explained.
“They picked this fi ght,”
he said.
A top aide for Gov. Andrew
Cuomo apparently admitted
to lawmakers that the state
withheld the numbers out of
fear that they would spur a
federal investigation, according
to a Feb. 11 article by New
York Post.
The state’s secrecy could
have also stemmed from Cuomo’s
controversial March advisory
that directed nursing
homes to re-admit residents
with COVID-19, which some
attributed to an uptick in
nursing home deaths.
“He has bent over backwards
in kind of misleading
ways to fi nd statistics that
paint the opposite picture
that allows him to claim that
the state did better than most
other states,” Hammond said.
“And in order to do that, they
really had to twist the statistics
out of shape.”
But now, the state’s efforts
to artifi cially lower the death
count for optics has created
another optic nightmare,
Hammond said.
“They brought this on
themselves,” he said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s offi
ce did not immediately respond
to a request for comment.
From Feb. 8 - Feb. 14
6.36%
Test positivity rate
1,133
New cases per day
18
Deaths per day
1,365,956
Vaccine doses given citywide
BY MICHAEL ROCK
A bipartisan coalition
of city and state lawmakers
have turned the heat up on
Gov. Andrew Cuomo following
a Thursday bombshell in
the New York Post revealing
that the number of nursing
home residents in the state
who died of COVID is higher
than reported.
In a call with Democratic
state offi cials, Cuomo aide-
Melissa DeRosa admitted
the governor refused a legislative
request in August to
conduct an accurate count,
lest the Trump White House
politicize the numbers.
The revelation comes a
month after state Attorney
General Letitia James’ January
report suggesting deaths
were about 50 percent higher
than announced. This led to
the count increasing from
8,711 deaths to 12,743 between
January 18 and 19. As of Feb.
10, the tally of nursing home
residents lost to COVID was
13,297 and 15,049 if assisted
living and adult care facilities
are included.
Mayor Bill de Blasio,
during his weekly appearance
with Brian Lehrer on
WNYC radio, said the report
was disturbing and a full accounting
of what happened
at nursing homes during the
initial outbreak of COVID
last year was needed.
“Think about the seniors.
Their lives were
hanging in the balance and
the families were just desperate
to get them help. We
need to fi nd out what happened
to make sure that it
never happens again,” de
Blasio told Lehrer.
State Sen. Andrew Gounardes
took to Twitter,
urging consequences for
Cuomo.
“This is a betrayal of the
public trust,” said the pol,
who represents a swath of
southern Brooklyn from
Bay Ridge to Marine Park.
“There needs to be full accountability
for what happened,
and the legislature
needs to reconsider its broad
grant of emergency powers
to the governor.”
US Republican Rep. Nicole
Malliotakis of Bay Ridge
took things a step farther,
urging Cuomo’s resignation.
“The Cuomo Admin not
only covered up the true
number of deaths at nursing
homes, they covered up the
number of positive patients
they put in nursing homes
that led to those deaths,” she
tweeted. “This fi gure is 40%
higher than what state sic
previously reported. Cuomo
must go!”
Queens state Sen. Jessica
Ramos offered a thread
on Cuomo’s failures, referencing
Cuomo’s hiring of
McKinsey, a pharmaceutical
giant linked to the opioid epidemic,
to provide treatment.
“Why be afraid of data
being weaponized if there’s
no criminal liability? Can’t
wait to learn more,” she
wrote. “62 people in Queens
were given `antimalarial
hydroxychloroquine and
antibiotic azithromycin
last spring — despite risks
documented by federal authorities
years before the
pandemic’ Why was this administered
so aggressively?
Did McKinsey play a role?”
Meanwhile, state Sen. Julia
Salazar of Buswick suggested
using the scandal as
an opportunity to fund care
for the elderly.
“It’s beyond to make it a
TOP priority to FULLY fund
universal long-term care.
Stop warehousing our elders.
Stop leaving families
without the choice of giving
their loved ones the care
they deserve.”
Additional reporting by
Robert Pozarycki, Rose Adams
and Stephen Witt.
BROOKLYN COVID STATS
REUTERS