As New York Governor Andrew Cuomo secured a reported US$4 million deal to write a book on his “leadership” in the coronavirus pandemic, he and his staff suppressed the truth about the number of deaths in aged care homes for at least five months.
On top of stopping health officials from telling the truth, Cuomo’s senior staffers also quashed a scientific paper that reported the true fatality total, The New York Times reported.
A June 18 e-mail from top aide Melissa DeRosa to health officials shows Team Cuomo was “anxious” about a pending Department of Health report on aged care home coronavirus fatalities and sought to downplay the idea that the 25 March mandate that forced homes to admit COVID-contagious patients had proved deadly.
Cuomo’s team were publicly citing an aged care home death toll of about 6,000 by ignoring home residents who had but did after being taken to hospital.
The draft report shared the full count of over 9,700, noting that the homes accounted for “approximately 35 per cent” of all NY coronavirus deaths.
But DeRosa — who at the same time was intimately involved in the Cuomo’s book-deal negotiations — had it edited out. The final report said the aged care homes only yielded 21 percent of the state’s virus death total, making it seem below, rather than above, the US average.
For at least five months Cuomo and his office refused to reveal the true figures. Now they are finally public knowledge, Cuomo and his office continue to avoid the real numbers.
“Give it up, governor: Your blatant dishonesty is an insult to the dead, and it won’t save your skin,” wrote the New York Post.
