The New York State Health Department confirmed on Friday that aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) altered a report on the state’s nursing home death toll, ultimately omitting 9,250 COVID-19-related deaths of nursing home patients.
This report comes after recent allegations were made against Cuomo’s aides that a report from state health officials was rewritten in order to cover up nursing home deaths as well as preserve Cuomo’s political reputation. The allegations claim that this cover-up marked the beginning of a large-scale effort to conceal the extent of the damage done by the pandemic in New York.
Gary Holmes, a department of health spokesperson, commented on the editing of the report. “While early versions of the report included out-of-facility deaths, the Covid taskforce was not satisfied that the data had been verified against hospital data and so the final report used only data for in facility deaths, which was disclosed in the report,” Holmes said.
Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, also weighed in on the situation, calling it “troubling,” and adding that the White House “certainly would support any outside investigation.”
Beth Garvey, Cuomo’s special counsel, attempted to shed some light on the situation. “The out-of-facility data was omitted after DoH could not confirm it had been adequately verified,” Garvey said. “This did not change the conclusion of the report.”
Accusations surrounding tainted data are not the only disturbing charges Cuomo is facing presently. The governor is also being confronted with sexual harassment allegations from former female employees.
Charlotte Bennett, one of Cuomo’s accusers, claims she believed the governor propositioned her for sex while they worked together. “I thought, he’s trying to sleep with me, the governor is trying to sleep with me and I’m very uncomfortable and I have to get out of this room as soon as possible,” Bennett said of one encounter. “He asked me if age difference matters. I’m 25. Without explicitly saying it, he implied that I was old enough for him and he was lonely.”
