Just when you think New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo cannot possibly be a more detestable, vile human being, along comes a new report to assure you he absolutely can.
The New York Times reports this week that Cuomo’s aides spent months (not weeks) covering up the state’s nursing home death toll just so he could hawk a book praising his administration’s efforts to battle the coronavirus pandemic.
For the record, as many as 11,000 New Yorkers may have died last year as a result of the governor’s order forcing infectious coronavirus patients into long-term care facilities. Cuomo, who is also an alleged sexual predator, is currently under federal investigation for his office’s reported efforts to keep the true nursing home death toll a secret.
The New York Times reports:
Mr. Cuomo’s most senior aides engaged in a sustained effort to prevent the state’s own health officials, including the commissioner, Howard Zucker, from releasing the true death toll to the public or sharing it with state lawmakers, these interviews and documents showed.
A scientific paper, which incorporated the data, was never published. An audit of the numbers by a top Cuomo aide was finished months before it became publicly known. Two letters, drafted by the Health Department and meant for state legislators, were never sent.
The actions coincided with the period in which Mr. Cuomo was pitching and then writing a book on the pandemic, with the assistance of his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, and others.
Denying state health officials access to data that would’ve allowed them to fight the pandemic more effectively, and thus prevent the Empire State from becoming superspreader No. 1, is bad enough. That Cuomo allegedly had staffers obscure the true nursing home death toll so he could sell a stupid self-aggrandizing book is genuinely psychotic.
If you think the New York Times’s straightforward report is bad, just wait until you consider its implications.
For starters, we must question now the number of excess deaths Cuomo’s interference may have caused. And not just excess deaths in New York, but in all the other states. We knew already New York was a superspreader state. But this new information suggests the overall effect it had on the rest of the country may actually be worse than originally thought, and all because its governor had a book to promote.
Moreover, how does the White House respond? Will it continue to allow Cuomo to lead the pandemic conference calls with the nation’s governors, calls that were led last year by former Vice President Mike Pence? Will President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris continue to skip the calls, as they’ve done this year in sharp contrast to the previous administration? Or will the White House step in to relieve the obviously unfit governor from his duties?
Oh, that some enterprising young journalist would have the guts to ask White House press secretary Jen Psaki this question.
Then again, even if a member of the White House press corps asked Psaki about the latest Cuomo news, don’t expect the administration to provide a forthcoming answer. After all, anything negative they say about Cuomo would create an uncomfortable situation for Andy Slavitt, the White House senior adviser for COVID-19 response.
Slavitt, you may recall, is the same wonder brain who claimed in July 2020 that the nursing home scandal was just a “right-wing meme.”
“[S]ome thought it was unfair that Cuomo drew such high praise for his handling of the crisis,” said the president’s point man on the White House’s COVID response. “He earned it for one reason.”
Slavitt adds, “He didn’t lie. He didn’t sell. He didn’t pat himself on the back. Or avoid responsibility. … He told the hard truths. He showed data. He asked for help. He demonstrated some empathy & some effort. And the country needed that.”
There’s more.
“There’s a right wing meme about how Cuomo killed people in nursing homes,” Slavitt claimed, adding, “The nursing home meme was generally spread by people whose principal skill is retweeting unread click bait. I ran the agency the Agency that oversaw nursing home safety & have been talking about this on TV, in writing & with governors.”
Oh, is that right? You know what, let’s forget about asking Psaki about the pandemic conference calls. Let’s hear what the White House’s senior COVID-19 adviser has to say about Cuomo and his reported obstruction of the state’s pandemic response for the sake of book sales.
