NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) – Gov. Andrew Cuomo's top aide, Melissa DeRosa, told Democratic lawmakers that his administration took months to release data on the coronavirus death toll among nursing home residents because officials “froze” over worries the information was “going to be used against us.”
The disclosure of DeRosa's comments, made on a conference call with Democratic legislative leaders, came as the Democratic governor and his administration were already facing backlash over their handling and reporting of outbreaks in nursing homes.
In recent weeks, the state has been forced to acknowledge the nursing home resident death toll is nearly 15,000, when it previously reported 8,500 — a number that excluded residents who died after being taken to hospitals. State lawmakers had requested data in August on nursing home deaths. Around the same time, then-President Donald Trump began retweeting comments criticizing Cuomo for his administration’s response on nursing home deaths. The Department of Justice requested data on nursing home deaths from Cuomo’s administration on Aug. 26.
“Basically, we froze 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 and what we start saying was going to be used against us, and we weren’t sure if there was going to be an investigation," DeRosa told the Democratic leaders Wednesday, according to a transcript provided by the governor’s office as well as a Democratic lawmaker who attended the meeting.
“That played a very large role into this,” she added, saying the administration had asked legislative leaders whether it could “pause on getting back to everybody until we get through this period and we know what’s what with the DOJ.”
DeRosa’s comments were first reported by the New York Post. The report sparked a firestorm Friday, with state Republicans saying the comments were admission of a “cover-up.” They’re now calling for resignations of both Cuomo and DeRosa, while progressive Democrats are blasting the administration over what they say is a lack of transparency.
1010 WINS has reached out to DeRosa and the Cuomo administration for a response. DeRosa issued a statement Friday saying the administration had to set aside lawmakers' request for data to deal with the Justice Department request first.
“We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and vaccine rollout," DeRosa said in the statement. "As I said on a call with legislators, we could not fulfill their request as quickly as anyone would have liked. But we are committed to being better partners going forward as we share the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic.”
Nevertheless, the report sparked heavy criticism from many Republicans in the state, as well as calls for state and federal investigations and impeachment discussions.
State Senate GOP leader Robert Ortt held a news conference in which he called on the Department of Justice and state Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the governor and his administration “from top to bottom.”
“Everyone involved has to be held accountable, investigated and prosecuted if necessary,” Ortt said.
He also wants Cuomo "stripped of his emergency powers," which were granted at the start of the pandemic.
Fourteen Democratic state senators on Friday called for the governor’s emergency powers to be rescinded, although their statement didn’t mention DeRosa’s comments.
"While COVID-19 has tested the limits of our people and state—and, early during the pandemic, required the government to restructure decision making to render rapid, necessary public health judgements—it is clear that the expanded emergency powers granted to the Governor are no longer appropriate," the Democratic lawmakers said, in part, in a statement.
Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican, called details in the report “obstruction of justice” and said the Department of Justice “must act.”
“Thousands of families of the deceased NY seniors deserve and demand nothing less than full accountability,” Zeldin said.
GOP Assemblyman Will Barclay said, “It’s very hard to do anything when we’re getting very limited information and have frankly been stonewalled by […] the Department of Health and the governor’s office.”
Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, who challenged Cuomo in 2018, said, “In the coming days [Cuomo] will cynically try to convince us that it was for our own good - that it was someone else's fault. This is another lie. What is true, is that Andrew Cuomo has proved himself unworthy of our trust, and unfit for public office.”
State GOP Chair Nick Langworthy said, “Andrew Cuomo has abused his power and destroyed the trust placed in the office of the governor. Prosecution and impeachment discussions must begin right away.”
"It is clearer now more than ever that the Department of Justice needs to conduct a full investigation into the Cuomo Administration's handling of nursing homes and COVID-19," Rep. Andrew Garbarino said, adding that "This, along with the refusal to respect the several Freedom of Information Law requests, turned a misjudgment in policy into what very well may be one of the largest criminal cover-ups in New York's history."
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik said, "This bombshell admission of a coverup and the remarks by the Secretary to the Governor indicating intent to obstruct any federal investigation is a stunning and criminal abuse of power."
Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, addressed the report in a radio interview Friday.
“It's a really disturbing report. It's very troubling," de Blasio said. "We’ve got to know more. We now need a full accounting of what happened. Think about seniors who their lives were in the balance and their families just desperate to get them the help they needed. We need to know exactly what happened here, we need to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
The report comes as the Associated Press reported that more than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York state were released from hospitals into nursing homes early in the pandemic under Cuomo’s controversial directive that was scrapped amid criticism it accelerated outbreaks.
The new number of 9,056 recovering patients sent to hundreds of nursing homes is more than 40% higher than what the state Health Department previously released. And it raises new questions as to whether a March 25 directive from Cuomo’s administration helped spread sickness and death among residents, a charge the state disputes.
The Cuomo administration’s March 25 directive barred nursing homes from refusing people just because they had COVID-19. It was intended to free up space in hospitals swamped in the early days of the pandemic. It came under criticism from advocates for nursing home residents and their relatives, who said it had the potential to spread the virus in a state that at the time already had the nation’s highest nursing home death toll. Cuomo reversed the directive May 10, barring nursing homes from accepting COVID patients without a negative test first.
State health officials contend that asymptomatic nursing home employees, not recovering COVID-19 patients, were the driving factor in nursing home outbreaks. And they have repeatedly noted that by law, nursing homes weren’t supposed to accept anyone they couldn’t adequately care for.
“At least 98% of nursing home facilities in the state had COVID in their facility before their first admission or readmission, and as we’ve seen across the nation, the major driver of infections appears to be from asymptomatic staff through no fault of their own,” said state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker in a statement to the AP.
He added that the March 25 directive followed federal guidance, and that the percentage of coronavirus deaths statewide that happened in nursing homes didn’t change from the spring to the fall — after the directive was reversed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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