Cuomo defends decision to delay publication of data on Covid-19 deaths at long-term care facilities in New York

Cuomo defends decision to delay publication of data on Covid-19 deaths at long-term care facilities in New York

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Cuomo said the health department had “interrupted” the request from state lawmakers to “interrupt” the data because they had put forward a related investigation by the justice department. He said that at that time both chambers of the state legislature were told about this.

In addition, he said the health department had largely put the data requests in the background and prioritized dealing with the immediate pandemic crisis, which he said had created a “gap” of facts that had leaked incorrect information.

“Should we give more priority afterwards to comply with information requests? In my opinion, yes, and I think that’s what created the gap. But do I understand the pressure among everyone? Yes,” he said.

New York Governor's Top Assistant Admits Government Has Delayed Covid-19 Deaths Release in Long-Term Care Institutions Due to Federal Investigation Problems
‘And basically we froze, because then we were in a position where we were not sure whether what we would give to the Department of Justice or what we would give to you, against which we started saying, we would be used, while we were not sure if there would be an investigation, ‘DeRosa said on the call, according to a transcript issued by the governor’s office on Friday.
The revelations undermine Cuomo’s self-identified reputation as a straight shooter, which was honed during the daily press conferences last year when the new coronavirus plagued New York. His communicative approach provided a clear contrast to the lies of former President Trump and the false assurance that the virus was under control and would disappear.

In the wake of DeRosa’s recognition, Democratic leaders in the state legislature are in active discussions to draft a bill to repeal Cuomo’s expanded executive during the pandemic.

“Momentum is moving in the direction of removing its forces,” a source told CNN.

The source said there was support for the lifting of Cuomo’s expanded forces before the assistant’s remarks were made public, but now it’s definitely going to happen. A bill is likely to be tabled in the State Legislature this week and voted on early next week.

However, Cuomo said Monday there was no connection between the nursing home issues and his emergency powers, and he said his Covid-19 legal action is only to protect the public.

“These are decisions about public health,” he said. “These are not local political decisions, and they must be made on a public health basis.”

Cuomo says investigation is politically motivated

The crux of the matter is whether Cuomo and health officials in New York could have better prevented the state’s nearly 46,000 deaths in Covid-19, the second most of any U.S. state.
A specific focus of this question was on the decision of the state to send thousands of patients recovering from Covid-19 infections back to nursing homes. Cuomo has long said that this decision is based on federal guidance to do so under the theory that these patients are probably no longer contagious and that hospitals need the space.

A second point of this question was to take a closer look at how many residents in nursing homes died in nursing homes and how many residents in the nursing home died in hospitals.

In late January, State Attorney General Letitia James released a report finding that the State Department of New York had reduced Covid-19 deaths among residents of nursing homes by about 50%.
In a statement, DeRosa sought to further explain her acknowledgment that the state had ‘frozen’.
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“I explained that when we received the DOJ investigation, we had to temporarily set aside the Legislature’s request to deal with the federal request first. We notified the houses of this at the time,” she said. “We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then immediately had to focus our resources on second wave and vaccine development.”

In recent months, Cuomo has repeatedly tried to dismiss questions about data on deaths in nursing homes as a ‘political attack’.

‘What I would say is that everyone did the best they could. When I say that the State Department of Health – as stated in the report – the State Department of Health followed federal guidance. “If you think there was a mistake, talk to the federal government,” he said on January 29.

“It’s not about pointing the finger or blaming. It is that it has become a political football right. See if anyone has died in a hospital or died in a nursing home. People are dead. ‘

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