NY Times reports that top Cuomo aides rewrote a report to remove nursing home death count

[mystery-ak]

NY Times reports that top Cuomo aides rewrote a report to remove nursing home death count

The report comes as the embattled New York governor also faces multiple allegations of sexual harassment.



By Alex Nitzberg

Updated: March 5, 2021 - 10:27am


As embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faces allegations of sexual harassment and scrutiny over issues pertaining to nursing home deaths in the Empire State, the New York Times is reporting that top Cuomo aides rewrote a report to remove the number of nursing home deaths.

The report had been written by state health officials and contained the number of nursing home residents who passed away in the pandemic. But that figure of more than 9,000 was not public information by that time in June, according to the Times, which reported that according to interviews and documents they had reviewed, the aides rewrote the report to remove the death count.

"The extraordinary intervention, which came just as Mr. Cuomo was starting to write a book on his pandemic achievements, was the earliest act yet known in what critics have called a monthslong effort by the governor and his aides to obscure the full scope of nursing home deaths," the Times said.

The outlet reported that Beth Garvey, special counsel and senior advisor to the governor, said in a statement that "the out-of-facility data was omitted after D.O.H. could not confirm it had been adequately verified," and that she also said that the additional data did not alter the conclusion of the report.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/nyt-reports-top-cuomo-aides-rewrote-report-remove-nursing-home-death

[Wingnut]

Gov Death will say he had know knowledge of that fact.

[mystery-ak]

Cuomo’s Top Aides Altered Nursing Home COVID Death Data To Save Their Own Butts
https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/05/cuomos-top-aides-altered-nursing-home-covid-death-data-to-save-their-own-butts/

[PeteS in CA]

NYT, WSJ: Cuomo “Top Aides” Began Cover-Up Of Nursing-Home Deaths Far Earlier Than Thought

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2021/03/05/nyt-wsj-cuomo-top-aides-began-cover-nursing-home-deaths-far-earlier-thought/

Game over, or at least it should be, courtesy of the two biggest newspapers in Andrew Cuomo’s state. Not only did Cuomo’s “top aides” force state officials to report false numbers of nursing-home deaths from Cuomo’s insane readmission policy, it happened long before the Trump administration took an interest in the issue, the New York Times reported late last night. Instead of hiding the numbers to avoid Donald Trump’s politicization, the timing suggests that Cuomo wanted to make sure nothing detracted from his book sales:

Top aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo were alarmed: A report written by state health officials had just landed, and it included a count of how many nursing home residents in New York had died in the pandemic.

The number — more than 9,000 by that point in June — was not public, and the governor’s most senior aides wanted to keep it that way. They rewrote the report to take it out, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The extraordinary intervention, which came just as Mr. Cuomo was starting to write a book on his pandemic achievements, was the earliest act yet known in what critics have called a monthslong effort by the governor and his aides to obscure the full scope of nursing home deaths.

...
The Wall Street Journal chimed in as well, reporting essentially the same story, perhaps from some of the same sources. They point out the other obvious issue — that Cuomo and his team knew full well that his policy had deadly consequences while they told legislators and the media a different story altogether for several more months:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top advisers successfully pushed state health officials to strip a public report of data showing that more nursing-home residents had died of Covid-19 than the administration had acknowledged, according to people with knowledge of the report’s production.
...
The changes Mr. Cuomo’s aides and health officials made to the nursing-home report, which haven’t been previously disclosed, reveal that the state possessed a fuller accounting of out-of-facility nursing-home deaths as early as the summer. The Health Department resisted calls by state and federal lawmakers, media outlets and others to release the data for another eight months.

Unsurprisingly.

One of the intrinsic weak points of conspiracies - which this is - is that the more conspirators, the more potential leakers. That Cuomo's peeps were playing games with nursing home deaths data was generally known early last summer. IMO, that the NYT and TWSJ only now "find" leakers is more reflective of their anti-Trump incuriosity of 8 or 10 months ago than of the strength of the conspirators' will.