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2021-02-13 04:44:02
By Dwaipayan
Andrew Cuomo's top aide 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 information came from a Democratic lawmaker who attended the Wednesday meeting and to a partial transcript released by the governor's office.
Republicans who term the comment admission of a “cover-up” are now calling for resignations of both Cuomo and the aide, secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa, while progressive Democrats are blasting the administration over what they say is a lack of transparency.
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.
“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 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," the news release said. "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.”
But it's unclear why New York couldn't provide data that nearly every other state published to state lawmakers and the Justice Department at the same time. DeRosa didn't directly respond to a question about whether New York was withholding data from state lawmakers to avoid it being used in any Justice Department investigation.
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