Cuomo personally altered nursing home COVID death report that undercounted fatalities, emails show
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo personally altered a state review that undercounted COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes by more than 50%, according to emails detailed in a new report.
Emails and congressional documents undermine Cuomo’s defiant claim during a summer congressional questioning that he never saw or even remembered the state Department of Health report, according to The New York Times first reported.
“The Governor’s amendments are attached for your review,” Cuomo’s aide wrote to the then-governor’s senior staff in June 2020, the Times report states.
Cuomo was not sworn in for his closed-door testimony this year but was told he could face criminal prosecution if he knowingly made false statements, according to a transcript.
The former governor’s controversial actions during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, most notably an order to send seniors with COVID to nursing homes, have been blamed for potentially causing as many as 9,000 excess deaths.
Cuomo later admitted to instructing his secretary to write an email to his inner circle referring to the March directive as “the great debacle.”
His role in a July 2020 state Department of Health report that undercounted nursing home deaths has been characterized as nothing less than a “cover-up” by a U.S. House of Representatives committee.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic alleged that Cuomo’s office “edited” the report, but emails obtained by The Times suggest his role was even more hands-on.
He personally inserted text blaming staff and family and friends who visited nursing homes for spreading COVID and contributing to deaths, the Times report says.
Cuomo, during a private questioning by House members in June, claimed he did not review a draft of the report on nursing home deaths before it was released.
He said he did not recall reviewing, editing or speaking about the report before its publication on July 7, 2020, according to a transcript.
And none of the emails detailed in the Times report were actually written by Cuomo, who reportedly does not use email.
Cuomo’s repeated attempts to deflect blame during a Capitol Hill hearing on Sept. 10 led Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) to call him a “liar.”
Vivian Zayas, co-founder of Voice for Seniors and whose mother, Ana Martinez, died after contracting COVID at a Long Island nursing home, attended the House hearing.
She said Cuomo “absolutely lied.”
“He said he had nothing to do with the report,” he said.
“If he lied to Congress, he committed a crime. He should definitely be investigated.”
“We will see this through to the end. Cuomo must be held accountable.”
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi, in response to emails detailed in The Times, argued that staff spread COVID in nursing homes.
“Governor Cuomo fully cooperated with the committee on two separate days, relayed everything he could recall about the events that happened four years ago in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic, and nothing this MAGA committee has uncovered undermines the fact that New York followed Trump’s CDC policies for nursing homes or the DOH report’s conclusion that COVID was spread in nursing homes by asymptomatic staff,” Azzopardi said in a statement.
Supporters of Cuomo, who resigned in disgrace during August 2021 amid a series of sexual misconduct allegations, have recently been “spreading the news” that he will run for mayor of New York City as the Eric Adams scandal engulfs.
