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Cuomo's Team Revised Nursing Home Report To Undercount Deaths, Reports Say
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 5, 2021
Modified Mar 5, 2021
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Governor Cuomo's office
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 5, 2021
Modified Mar 5, 2021
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Governor Andrew Cuomo's top aides rewrote a state health department report on nursing home deaths last summer that diminished the number of New Yorkers who died in the facilities, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
The state report, released in July, stated that the coronavirus had infected residents and staff of nursing homes earlier than originally thought, and that the state's March 25th directive that forced nursing homes to readmit residents who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 did not contribute to more fatalities.
However, the report did not include deaths of nursing home residents who died in hospitals. Last May, nursing home operators told Gothamist/WNYC that they had been reporting higher numbers of deaths than what the state was disclosing publicly. Instead, the state counted those deaths as hospital deaths.
According to the NY Times, "The Health Department worked on the report with McKinsey, a consulting firm hired by Mr. Cuomo to help with the pandemic response. The chart they created compared nursing home deaths in New York with other states. New York’s total of 9,250 deaths far exceeded that of the next-highest state, New Jersey, which had 6,150 at the time."
During discussions about the report with the governor's office, the Wall Street Journal reports health officials did agree to remove some data, but "resisted Cuomo aides’ requests to alter the report to play down the role of the March 25 directive in the spread of the virus, some of the people said."
The aides involved in the discussion were, according to the reports, secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa, New York State Department of Financial Services superintendent Linda Lacewell, and adviser and SUNY chancellor Jim Malatras. The Times reported, "[A]n edited version prepared by Mr. Malatras did not remove the higher death toll. That occurred later, after Ms. DeRosa and Ms. Lacewell became aware of its inclusion. It was taken out soon after."
The state report was eventually published with a nursing home death toll at 6,432—trailing New Jersey's 6,617 deaths. The Times noted that four days after the altered report was released, the governor announced, "I am now thinking about writing a book about what we went through."
In statements responding to the Times report, a state health spokesperson emphasized that the directive was "not a driver of nursing home deaths" and said the report "was a collaborative process between DOH and the COVID task force." Cuomo's special counsel Beth Garvey claimed that the additional deaths were stricken from the report because "DOH could not confirm it had been adequately verified."
A January 2021 report from NY Attorney General Letitia James found that nursing home deaths were significantly undercounted. Last month, DeRosa told state lawmakers—a bipartisan group who had been questioning the nursing home data for months—that the state did withhold information because the Trump administration had begun a federal inquiry.
After that disclosure, one of those lawmakers, Queens Assemblymember Ron Kim, publicly faulted how the state handled the nursing homes during the pandemic, prompting Cuomo to berate Kim during an unrelated press conference for 20 minutes. Kim said that Cuomo had also called him at home, with the governor shouting and threatening his career to the point that Kim's wife was frightened. That revelation unleashed a cascade of accusations of Cuomo being an abusive boss and sexually harassing staffers.
The Justice Department is currently investigating the governor's office over his handling of nursing home deaths.
Vivian Zayas’ mother died of COVID-19 in a hospital last spring, after catching it at a rehab center, meaning her mother’s death would have been removed from the Health Department report.
“What’s really truly hurtful to the families [is that he did it] for self-interest. He hid the numbers to look [good],” she said, pointing to Cuomo’s various pandemic-era media stunts. “He hid the numbers because he wanted an image of a successful governor while he paraded his book, and issued his awesome poster and stood on the mountain top, patting his chest.”
She added the Cuomo has backed himself into a corner.
“Where do you go from here except resignation?”
With reporting from Gwynne Hogan
Tagged
Governor Andrew Cuomo
pandemic
COVID-19
ron kim
Melissa DeRosa
nursing home
Cuomo in Crisis
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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