Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa admits they hid nursing home data so feds wouldn’t find out | New York Post - Bernadette Hogan, Carl Campanile and Bruce Golding:
February 11, 2021 - "Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for withholding the state’s nursing home death toll from COVID-19 — telling them 'we froze' out of fear that the true numbers would 'be used against us' by federal prosecutors, The Post has learned. The stunning admission of a coverup was made by secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa during a video conference call with state Democratic leaders in which she said the Cuomo administration had rebuffed a legislative request for the tally in August because 'right around the same time, [then-President Donald Trump] turns this into a giant political football,' according to an audio recording of the two-hour-plus meeting.
“'He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes,' DeRosa said.... In addition to attacking Cuomo’s fellow Democratic governors, DeRosa said, Trump 'directs the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us.... 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'....
"After dropping the bombshell, DeRosa asked for 'a little bit of appreciation of the context' and offered what appears to be the Cuomo administration’s first apology for its handling of nursing homes amid the pandemic. But instead of a mea culpa to the grieving family members of more than 13,000 dead seniors or the critics who say the Health Department spread COVID-19 in the care facilities with a March 25 state Health Department directive that nursing homes admit [Covid-positive] patients, DeRosa tried to make amends with the fellow Democrats for the political inconvenience it caused them....
“'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'....
"Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), who took part in the call, told The Post on Thursday that DeRosa’s remarks sounded '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.... Kim, whose uncle is presumed to have died of COVID-19 in a nursing home in April, also said he wasn’t satisfied with DeRosa’s apology....
"In addition to stonewalling lawmakers on the total number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19, Cuomo’s administration refused requests from the news media — including The Post — and fought a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the Empire Center on Public Policy. Instead, it only disclosed data on the numbers of residents who died in their nursing homes.
"But after state Attorney General Letitia James last month released a damning report that estimated the deaths of nursing home residents in hospitals would boost the grim tally by more than 50 percent, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker finally released figures showing the combined total was 12,743 as of Jan. 19. Just a day earlier, the DOH was only publicly acknowledging 8,711 deaths in nursing homes. In a Wednesday letter to lawmakers, Zucker said the total number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19 had increased to 13,297. That number jumps to 15,049 when assisted living/adult care facilities are factored in.
"The controversy generated by James’ report led to an infamous news conference at which Cuomo callously dismissed the matter of where nursing home fatalities actually took place. 'Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died,' he said."
Read more: https://nypost.com/2021/02/11/cuomo-aide-admits-they-hid-nursing-home-data-from-feds/
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