Cuomo cooked the books over the number of deaths in nursing homes. The figures, as we’ve all surmised, are worse than we thought. 

“The July report, which examined the factors that led to the spread of the virus in nursing homes, focused only on residents who died inside long-term-care facilities, leaving out those who had died in hospitals after becoming sick in nursing homes. As a result, the report said 6,432 nursing-home residents had died—a significant undercount of the death toll attributed to the state’s most vulnerable population, the people said. The initial version of the report said nearly 10,000 nursing-home residents had died in New York by July last year, one of the people said.”

Read that paragraph again. Cuomo’s administration counted ONLY those residents who died in the nursing homes. They purposefully left out of the count, those poor souls who got sick IN the nursing homes, but were transported to hospitals and later died there. How many died?

“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.:

As The NY Times notes further on in its piece, the number of deaths by June stood at 9,250. What was Cuomo’s response to this latest bombshell?

“In response to a detailed list of questions from The Times sent on Tuesday, the governor’s office responded with a statement Thursday night from Beth Garvey, a special counsel, who said “the out-of-facility data was omitted after D.O.H. could not confirm it had been adequately verified.” She added that the additional data did not change the conclusion of the report.

What a complete and utter load of horseshit. They KNEW the books were cooked. Why else would they have had at the ready the excuse to hide the numbers because Trump’s DOJ was investigating? They KNEW Cuomo cooked the books, and they were involved and complicit as both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times pieces make clear. 

Furthermore, the report issued in July by the Department of Health absolved the Cuomo administration of any wrong-doing. Yet, several in the New York legislator and others such as Janice Dean were highly skeptical and were pushing for the real data and answers. What was Cuomo’s response four days after the July report was released?

“I am now thinking about writing a book about what we went through.” 

The book was already in motion by that time. A book that, once published, garnered fawning accolades from the media and politicians everywhere. Cuomo netted an Emmy for his Q-tip chuckles interviews with his brother Chris and Covid play mountain briefings. All the while he was ignoring calls for transparency. All the while, no one was asking why places like the USS Comfort and the Javits Center were grossly underutilized during the early months of this pandemic. 

But now, Cuomo is toxic on two levels. One for his bullying and the sexual harassment allegations from three women, and two for cooking the books. 

There are those out there asking, which is worse? The answer is BOTH. Cuomo made a political decision that shattered lives and killed thousands. He also made the decision on multiple occasions to sexually harass staffers and complete strangers. They are both heinous and he should be held to account on ALL OF IT. 

I will never forget those fawning, disgusting interviews about his “leadership” book on @CBSThisMorning @NBCNews @msnbc @abcnews @CNN while @NYGovCuomo, @melissadderosa and company were literally cooking the books about nursing home numbers.

— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) March 5, 2021

15,000 nursing home residents died.

15,000 of our loved ones died.

And Cuomo hid the numbers.

Impeach. https://t.co/9sLzBnjNLL

— Ron T. Kim (@rontkim) March 5, 2021

AGREED.

Yet, isn’t it interesting that Cuomo’s under fire for the nursing home deaths and other governors aren’t? How about good ole Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan?  She and other Democrat governors are under fire for their questionable nursing home practices as well. The media is reluctantly reporting it, with the caveat that the GOP is pouncing and seizing. 

So, Cuomo cooking the books and thus getting him thrown under the bus is to protect the others? Interesting premise. 

Never mind that, Cuomo told us yesterday, he’d learn from this. 

If he thought that yesterday’s blustery news conference would help his sinking poll numbers, todays news will crater what ever progress he thought he’d made. 

Cuomo cooked the books. He did so solely because of politics, and in my opinion, out of pure spite. The only lesson that will really sink in is the lesson that involves booting Andrew Cuomo from office. 

Feature Photo Credit: caricature by DonkeyHotey via Flickr, cropped and modified