Wednesday, March 31, 2021

31 March 2021: How the Timing of Governor Cuomo's Book Deal Fits into NY's COVID Nursing Home Deaths Scandal

As Cuomo Sought $4 Million Book Deal, Aides Hid Damaging Death Toll

None other than the New York Times has finally noticed what Team Cuomo members were doing while Governor Cuomo was scoring his book deal!

As the coronavirus subsided in New York last year, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had begun pitching a book proposal that would center on his image as a hero of the pandemic. But by early last summer, both his book and image had hit a critical juncture.

Mr. Cuomo leaned on his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, for assistance. She attended video meetings with publishers, and helped him edit early drafts of the book. But there was also another, more pressing edit underway at the same time.

An impending Health Department report threatened to disclose a far higher number of nursing home deaths related to the coronavirus than the Cuomo administration had previously made public. Ms. DeRosa and other top aides expressed concern about the higher death toll, and, after their intervention, the number — which had appeared in the second sentence of the report — was removed from the final version.

At stake was not just the governor’s reputation, but also, potentially, a huge payoff: a book deal that ended with a high offer of more than $4 million, according to people with knowledge of the book’s bidding process.

Here's a sampling of previous coverage of Governor Cuomo's book deal from the timeline:

Governor Cuomo's book deal was announced on 18 August 2020. Here are some of the more notable events from the timeline during that month:

That last story was used as the excuse for the Cuomo administration's acknowledged coverup of the full extent of COVID nursing home resident deaths during the period its deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect.

But if you notice, the Cuomo administration had already been hiding the data for months, long before the Trump DOJ sought its data. In reality, Team Cuomo had been exploiting a loophole in reporting nursing home resident death data to the U.S. government as early as May 2020, which is how they were able to hide the full extent of these deaths.

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31 March 2021: Governor Cuomo Looking for Better PR People and Legal Help

NY Gov. Cuomo is hunting for crisis PR help as he battles negative press

This report may be a sign that Governor Cuomo is coming to the realization that he is not well served by Senior Advisor Richard Azzopardi. It is definitely a sign the Cuomo administration knows it needs legal help:

Embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's team has been calling some of the nation's most seasoned crisis PR specialists for media help, three sources told Insider.

Cuomo currently has criminal defense lawyer Rita Glavin, who exited law firm Seward & Kissel this month to set up her own firm, Glavin LLC and has been issuing press statements on his behalf....

Three PR sources confirmed that Cuomo's team has been calling around for the past few weeks, most recently late last week. It is unclear if Cuomo's team has hired anybody, though at least one high-profile crisis PR firm said they are looking at how they can get on board.

Another person familiar with New York's political elite said that Cuomo is friendly with crisis PR executive Ken Sunshine of Sunshine Sachs. The firm has also done work for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Sunshine declined to comment on whether he is advising the Governor.

These are people you don't have to hire unless your current team isn't up to the task. They are also people you don't have to hire if you haven't hurt lots of people, but that's a different scandal.

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31 March 2021: Pennsylvania's Hidden Data on COVID Nursing Home Deaths

OP-ED: Pennsylvanians deserve answers

Pennsylvania is one of the handful of states that adopted policies similar to the New York's Cuomo admininstration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive, which forced nursing homes to admit COVID patients in order to free up bed space in hospitals. In this op-ed, U.S. representative Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) describes how Governor Tom Wolf's administration has been hiding some public data regarding its policy.

For the first few months, the Pennsylvania Department of Health provided no data on COVID cases and deaths in nursing homes. This left the public with no way of knowing which homes were hit hardest by the virus. When the state finally began releasing data on resident cases and deaths, it was incomplete and contained serious errors.

According to an investigation from Spotlight PA, many of the facilities that the state listed as missing data had met their reporting requirements. The facility managers did not know why their data had not been included in state reports....

The families and loved ones of Pennsylvania’s nursing home victims deserve the truth about Wolf’s actions and their role in the tragic spread of COVID in Pennsylvania’s nursing homes. Governor Wolf must produce all relevant documents and data related to the reporting discrepancies.

Would this issue exist if the hidden data painted a positive, neutral, or even mildly negative picture of the effects of the Wolf administration's COVID nursing homes policies?

In any case, here's a primer on Pennsylvania's COVID nursing home deaths scandal, which echoes New York Governor Cuomo's scandal in many ways.

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31 March 2021: Calls for Probe of Cuomo COVID Group Home Deaths Scandal

COVID-19 in NY: High infection, death rates in group homes prompt calls for probe

This report indicates the Cuomo administration's COVID group home deaths scandal, a smaller version of its COVID nursing home deaths scandal, is heating up with calls for investigation:

With a COVID-19 death toll in group homes of at least 554 residents and more than 7,000 coronavirus cases, New Yorkers in group homes have been three times more likely to contract and die from the respiratory disease than the public, according to state figures and advocates.

Some of the factors driving the group home crisis included a lack of access to personal protective equipment and COVID-19 testing, as well as governmental mismanagement during the pandemic, according to a recent report by Disability Rights New York and other advocacy groups.

Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro last week cited the report’s findings in calling on state Attorney General Letitia James to launch an investigation of the state’s handling of COVID-19 in group homes.

Unlike NY nursing homes, the directive for placing COVID-infected patients in group homes for the disabled was never rescinded. These homes also ranked behind hospital and nursing homes for the state government's rationing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for staff and residents, which means they were much worse off than nursing homes. As a result, they faced much worse shortages of these medical supplies throughout the pandemic, which contributed to the spread of COVID within these facilities.

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31 March 2021: Stonewalling Within NY's Ethics Commission to Protect Governor Cuomo

Cuomo book details elusive, even for ethics commissioner

This report suggests Governor Cuomo's book deal is avoiding scrutiny by members of New York's Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) through the stonewalling of its new chair, Cuomo-appointee Camille Joseph Varlack, who has not made information used by the ethics watchdog's staff to approve Governor Cuomo's pandemic book deal available to other commission appointees or the public.

It’s not just the general public that’s in the dark on details of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s book deal: Even some members of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics are having trouble getting information.

For the past six weeks, JCOPE Commissioner Gary Lavine has been trying to get JCOPE’s new chair, Camille Joseph Varlack, to provide commissioners with additional information about the publication of the book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.” JCOPE commissioners are supposed to have oversight of New York public officials' requests to earn outside income.

Lavine, an appointee of state Senate Republicans, told the Times Union that Varlack's response has been that she’s still getting up to speed in her new role — and has not provided anything yet.

“It’s a gigantic taffy pull – just stretch out everything,” Lavine said. “And that’s what Varlack is doing.”

JCOPE commissioners never voted to approve Cuomo’s book deal. Instead, last summer, the governor's request was approved solely by the commission’s staff....

“They have a cohort of ‘super-commissioners’ that are getting information that should be disseminated to all of us,” Lavine said. “We have no information about the book other than the request and the granting of permission.”

The 'super-commissioners' refers to Democratic party members of the commission who were appointed by Governor Cuomo, who would appear to get information that is not shared with other commissioners.

Regardless, the stonewalling in providing data to commissioners that is already in its staff's possession by the commission's chair suggests Governor Cuomo's abuse of power extends even into the state's official ethics watchdog.

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Tuesday, March 30, 2021

30 March 2021: Odds and Ends from Cuomoland... and a Sea Shanty

The following articles present different aspects of one of the bigger stories of the day: New York's new law that allows many family members to finally visit their elderly, sick relatives living in New York's nursing homes after more than a year of coronavirus pandemic restrictions imposed by Governor Cuomo.

The day provided reports of Governor Andrew Cuomo and CNN Cheerleader Chris Cuomo attempting to continue business and life as normal:

The day also provided reports and analysis that indicate life for Governor Cuomo is very far from a pre-scandal normal:

Even the bridge named after the father of Governor Andrew Cuomo and CNN Cheerleader Chris Cuomo is mired in his gubernatorial son's scandals. And now there's an Irish-style sea shanty about it!

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30 March 2021: Hospital and Nursing Home Lobbyists Upset at Losing Cuomo's Gift of COVID Legal Immunity

Health care industry's pandemic-era legal shields poised for repeal

This report covers the reaction of the lobbyists of the Greater New York Hospital Group, who leveraged the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive into a gift of legal immunity for COVID deaths on 2 April 2020. As you'll see in the excerpted section below, they've turned to fearmongering to try to preserve their special protections:

Legislation nixing broad legal protections for health care providers during the pandemic stands ready to become law after receiving the approval of veto-proof majorities in the Assembly and state Senate. The vote drew the condemnation of health care and nursing home industry representatives, who called the move premature.

"What if the variants do something unexpected? What happens if something goes awry in the near future?" asked Southern New York Association President Neil Heyman, whose group represents long-term-care facilities in New York City, Long Island and Westchester. "I think people should still be protected until we reach herd immunity and this thing is gone."

The provisions were drafted by the Greater New York Hospital Association and became law as part of the budget passed last spring, as the Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act. The law shields health care providers and their facilities from civil or criminal liability for incidents related to care they provide during the pandemic, as long as they act in good faith. The protections do not apply to willful or intentional criminal conduct, recklessness or gross negligence.

Here's more background from the timeline:

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30 March 2021: NY Nursing Home Patients Gain Legal Access to Personal Caregivers

Governor Cuomo signs nursing home legislation allowing personal care visitors

This report is notable for what it doesn't say.

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation sponsored by State Senator Rachel May that aims to improve oversight and care at nursing homes.

The legislative package will create a task force to reimagine the delivery of long-term care, allow personal and compassionate care visitors, and mandate disclosure of nursing home ratings.

“This is a great step forward for the health and well-being of nursing home residents now and in any future pandemics,” said AARP New York State Director Beth Finkel. “AARP New York thanks Senator May for her leadership and advocacy in guiding this bill though the legislative process to make sure family and caregivers have the right to visit loved ones safely during a state of emergency.”

“On behalf of the many callers to our Patients’ Rights Helpline who have shared their outrage about nursing home and assisted living residents living in isolation during the past year, we thank Senator May for championing their rights and recognizing the need for essential visitors,” said Maria Alvarez, Executive Director, New York StateWide Senior Action Council. “Senator May took a proactive interest in our case calls last Spring, spearheaded work by the Senate to hold hearings last Summer, and consistently called on the Governor to immediately open visitation to offset declines in the quality of care. This new law ensures that New Yorkers will never again be deprived of the caring eyes and hands of an essential visitor.”

Note that neither AARP New York Director Beth Finkel nor NY StateWide Senior Action Council Executive Director Maria Alvarez appear to have thanked Governor Cuomo for signing the legislation in their comments. That means that either thanks for Governor Cuomo were not offered or that they were not reported. Either way, the absence says a lot.

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30 March 2021: CNN's Chris Cuomo Received Extra Special Care from NY DOH Doctor at Taxpayer Expense

CNN's Cuomo received multiple special visits from NY state doctor: report

This report raises severe ethical concerns, not to mention details of the repeated misappropriation of public resources to benefit members of Governor Cuomo's circle of influence and family. How long will either Governor Andrew Cuomo or his brother, CNN's Prime Time host Chris Cuomo keep their jobs?

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo and his family received multiple visits from a New York State Department of Health physician last year, even more attention than others connected to his brother Governor Andrew Cuomo who received preferred treatment, The Washington Post reported Monday.

“A top state physician whose pandemic portfolio involved coordinating testing in nursing homes was dispatched multiple times to the Hamptons home of CNN host Chris Cuomo, the governor’s brother, in testing visits that sometimes stretched hours,” the Post reported.

The special treatment detailed in the Post report included being given priority at testing centers where State troopers were waiting to rush test samples to the labs. People included in the Cuomo inner circle received their results in hours or days, while other New Yorkers had to wait up to a week.

Related, from the timeline!

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30 March 2021: How NY DOH Officials Looked Out for Número Cuomo in COVID Testing Scandal

How New York health officials were told to prioritize coronavirus testing of people connected to Andrew Cuomo

This report uncovers how Governor Cuomo's scandal involving giving preferential access to COVID testing to family members and those with connections to the governor's office worked:

Seven individuals with firsthand knowledge of testing practices said that some people with access to power were able to largely bypass the overburdened resources available to the general public when the pandemic first gripped New York last year.

The individuals — who spoke at length to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution by Cuomo’s office — described the behind-the-scenes operations and their feelings of discomfort with a system that they believed at times prioritized political connections over medical need.

State officials strongly disputed that people were given special treatment because of ties to Cuomo. They said priority testing was available to many New York residents involved in the state’s pandemic response, as well as members of the general public, such as those who were at high risk.

But people familiar with the efforts said they were also told to treat individuals differently because of their connections to the governor.

During the early frenetic weeks in March 2020, officials working at testing sites rapidly assembled a system that gave special treatment to people described by staff as “priorities,” “specials,” “inner circle” or “criticals,” according to five people, including three nurses, who described how resources were redirected to serve those close to the governor and other cases that were fast-tracked.

This report provides a good indication of what life would be like under a single-payer health care system, where decisions on how to provide limited resources to individuals are based on political determinations rather than medical needs.

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Monday, March 29, 2021

29 March 2021: NY DOH Director Howard Zucker and Cuomo Defender Beth Garvey Get Nasty on Call with Nursing Homes

Top Cuomo officials ‘threatened’ nursing home reps during heated call about COVID vaccines

This report details how Howard Zucker, the stonewalling director of New York's Departhment of Health and Governor Cuomo's chief legal defender used threats of fines and the revoking of operating licenses to put pressure on nursing home operators. But as you'll see, they didn't exactly have their facts right:

Two members of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s inner circle threatened nursing-home association representatives with fines and license revocations during a heated, emergency call about COVID-19 vaccinations — even though it was based on erroneous information, sources on the call told The Post.

The call, held earlier this month, came as Cuomo has faced continuing scrutiny over his response to the health crisis in nursing homes, as well as allegations that he fosters a toxic work environment where bullying behavior permeates the upper ranks.

State Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker and Beth Garvey, special counsel to the governor, used the call to threaten nursing home operators for failing to pick up vaccine shipments they supposedly ordered — only for it to emerge that their gripes were based on inaccurate information, according to sources on the call.

“Why the over-the-top threatening? Why wasn’t it a phone call of ‘what are you guys hearing and are there issues getting the vaccine out?'” said one source. “You call people up with no notice, start threatening licenses and penalties — that’s your starting position? The first I heard something was wrong was on that call. Before that? Nothing.”

The report contains excerpts of audio recorded during Zucker and Garvey's call, in which they tag teamed on delivering threats. Here's Howard Zucker applying pressure:

“What are my options here?” asked Zucker, according to audio of a 26-minute portion of the call obtained by The Post. “There’s the option of fines. There’s the option of enforcement. There’s the option of shaming everyone and saying, ‘I can’t believe the people aren’t doing this.’

And here's Beth Garvey in action:

“It is absolute malpractice to have these vaccines available and have not picked them up,” she said. “I would think that each and every medical director at these facilities should feel personal jeopardy for their medical licenses. We obviously have tools at our disposal.

“Every option is on the table, as far as issuing emergency regs, issuing fines and penalties,” she continued. “We have literally bent over backwards to try to see if the nursing homes would do the right thing. I think our only recourse at this point is to try to clean it up, because we have liability.”

The call provides a window into the Cuomo administration's toxic culture, which explains why nursing home operators were more petrified of the DOH than COVID during the period when the administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect.

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29 March 2021: Editorial - Cuomo "Unfit" To Remain Governor

Cuomo is unfit for Governor

The editors of NYU's Washington Square News student newspaper have had enough of Governor Cuomo's tenure in office. In the following excerpt, they hit on Governor Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals (emphasis ours):

... On March 25, 2020, Cuomo issued the controversial mandate that prevented nursing homes from refusing to accept patients recovering from the coronavirus in their facilities. While policymakers don’t have the ideal amount of time to respond to any sudden crisis, a pandemic that implicates the lives of New Yorkers everywhere required the Cuomo administration to be even more vigilant. However, Cuomo and his team failed to talk to medical experts before issuing the directive. Jim Lytle, CEO of LeadingAge, a trade association for nonprofit nursing homes in New York, believed the initial policy to be “hospital-centric” and a “mistake.” It’s unsurprising, then, that Cuomo has previously expressed distrust of scientific expertise and has repeatedly opted to work with healthcare industry leaders instead. This decision was made despite early evidence showing that nursing home residents are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

The decision was ultimately reversed on May 10. However, the repeal came too late. 6,400 residents had already died in New York nursing homes and long-term care facilities. For comparison, the residents who died constitute 6% of New York nursing home residents, and experts have concluded that Cuomo’s policy substantially increased the magnitude of the COVID-19 death toll. These numbers were effectively concealed by the Cuomo administration until recent reports exposed their true extent. It is clear that Cuomo neither understands nor respects scientific expertise. If Democrats parade themselves as the party that stands for science, they must condemn their beloved New York governor who has repeatedly demonstrated he will not sustain this value. While cable news shows treated Cuomo like a living legend last summer, the governor was busy dismissing virus warnings, cutting hospital beds and Medicaid, and sending ill patients to facilities full of vulnerable people.

Here are the final three paragraphs of their editorial (emphasis ours):

Contextualized against the backdrop of the burgeoning #Me Too movement, Cuomo’s sexual misconduct is inexcusable, especially under the ruse of behaving like an old-school politician. His lack of accountability sets a dangerous precedent for not only those holding political office, but for others in positions of power across the United States. If Cuomo refuses to resign, then governmental action must be taken to impeach him.

Before the scandals, Cuomo was lauded as an example of exemplary leadership. However, after recent events, Cuomo’s memoir “American Crisis” on how to govern during the pandemic has seen greatly diminished sales. Additionally, on March 9, his approval rating hit an all-time low, clocking in at a measly 38%. During a pandemic, the first responsibility of a state governor should be to keep as many of his constituents alive as possible — not to fuel personal vanity and accomplishment.

The challenges of this pandemic call for somebody who respects that scientific knowledge is necessary to address them. Cuomo has repeatedly shown he is not that leader. As he faces multiple allegations of sexual harassment, and criticism for his cover-up of the true COVID-19 death toll on nursing home residents, Gov. Cuomo’s refusal to resign indicates not only a failure to recognize his wrongdoings, but a failure to understand his job.

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29 March 2021: Ninth Woman Alleges Sexual Harassment by Governor Cuomo

Married woman says Cuomo grabbed her face, kissed her cheek: ‘I felt like I was being manhandled’

Governor Cuomo is now up to nine women accusing him of sexual harassment:

Another woman came forward with allegations of inappropriate behavior by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday.

Sherry Vill, a married mother and grandmother, said the governor forcibly grabbed her by the face and kissed her on the cheek twice in front of her family while touring flood damage at her upstate New York home in May 2017.

Vill and her attorney, Gloria Allred, detailed the allegations during a news conference Monday. The 55-year-old businesswoman said Cuomo’s actions were unwelcome and made her uncomfortable and embarrassed.

“I felt he was coming onto me in my own home,” Vill said. “I felt like I was being manhandled.”

Ick.

Some reports are calling Vill the tenth Cuomo accuser, but there have previously been eight accusing Governor Cuomo of sexual harassment, plus one alleging verbal harassment. Unless we've missed one, in which case, now that we're in double digits, it's getting hard to keep track of all the accusers.

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29 March 2021: New York Democratic Party "In Bind" Over Cuomo Scandals

Cuomo's defiance leaves N.Y. Democrats in a bind

This article looks forward to the 2022 elections and the role Governor Cuomo's multiple scandals wlll have upon the decisions New York's Democratic Party will soon need to make to prepare for them. While much of the article focuses on the reactions to the multiple allegations of Governor Cuomo's sexual harassment, the following excerpt considers how the Cuomo administration's COVID nursing home deaths scandals affects the perception of his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic:

Luke Perry, director of the Utica College Center of Public Affairs and Election Research, said the investigations into the suppression of nursing home death data are testing how New Yorkers view Cuomo's competence, while the sexual harassment scandals have put questions about his character in focus.

The governor is expected to try to keep his position "at least to see what happens with the investigations," he added.

"The combination of these two — competency and character — have completely changed the landscape for him in a relatively short time," Perry said.

If history is any guide, the members of New York's Democratic Party will do whatever it takes to retain their hold on power. If that means sweeping Cuomo's scandals under the rug, they will. If that means expelling Cuomo from office, they will. We think the most likely option they will pursue is to sweep Governor Cuomo's scandals under the rug in the short term and keep him from being impeached before the elections while keeping him from running for re-election.

But here's the money quote from the article:

Lynn Krogh of Cooperstown, who managed the unsuccessful campaign of 2018 GOP gubernatorial nominee Marc Molinaro, said she believes many Democratic leaders would prefer to dump Cuomo and rally behind a woman as their candidate for governor next year.

"It makes complete and total sense that they would but right now they face this massive roadblock named Andrew Cuomo," Krogh said.

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29 March 2021: Proposal to Compel NY Comptroller to Audit Cuomo COVID Nursing Home Policies

Proposal would establish automatic audit of state’s nursing home policies

This article describes a proposal to compel the state of New York's Comptroller to conduct a review of the Cuomo administration's COVID nursing home policies:

A proposal requiring New York’s comptroller office to conduct an automatic review of the state’s nursing home policies surrounding COVID-19 and how well providers complied is being pushed by a Republican lawmaker.

The proposed amendment to the state’s budget was unveiled late last week by Sen. Sue Serino. If approved, the legislation would require an audit of the state’s department of health and any other agency involved with mitigating the impact of COVID-19 in nursing homes.

The proposed audit would evaluate how the state distributes funding for facilities, current requirements and enforcement of infection prevention and control policies, patient care and health outcomes in nursing homes and a regional analysis of the availability of qualified staff.

New York's Comptroller is Tom DiNapoli, who has been standing in the way of a criminal investigation into the Cuomo administration's COVID nursing home policies by New York's state attorney general.

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Sunday, March 28, 2021

28 March 2021: Governor Cuomo's Rationing of COVID Testing

Cuomo admin. kept COVID tests from nursing homes as gov’s kin got them

More evidence is emerging of the Cuomo administration's rationing of COVID tests to the detriment of New York's nursing homes in the earliest months of the coronavirus pandemic. This report details new aspects of that scandal from April 2020. Here's a short excerpt:

Troubled by reports of COVID-19 running roughshod through nursing homes early in the pandemic, Jack Wheeler, the manager of upstate Steuben County, requested in April 2020 that the state Department of Health provide enough tests for every resident and staff member of three facilities in his jurisdiction.

The DOH, however, only came through with enough supplies for one of the three facilities, Hornell Gardens, with the precious diagnostic tests then hard to find, Wheeler told The Post.

That lackluster response came, as The Albany Times-Union reported last week, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo allegedly pulled strings to secure tests for bigwigs connected to his administration, as well as relatives including his brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo, and their elderly mother, Matilda.

This episode provides another example of how health care under a single-payer system would work, with politicians using their influence to determine who receives what quality of care, at what time, and in what quantity.

Here's how Jack Wheeler described his reaction to learning of Governor Cuomo's COVID testing scandal:

“I’m furious because testing of the most vulnerable population should be the absolute priority and a simple request,” Wheeler told The Post. “But [that] high-level, connected people had that luxury when we couldn’t even get people in the nursing homes tested is just infuriating.”...

He wasn't alone, as this anecdote from Steuben County Health Director Darlene Smith indicates:

“Those nursing homes were raging with positive cases and deaths and the purpose of universal swabbing of both residents and staff was to identify positive cases, isolate the positive staff and … get the positive residents cohorted together to prevent further spread,” said Smith.

“We had to beg, borrow, and steal basically and were able to get test kits from other counties,” she continued. “Now knowing [that] what limited supply there was was being hoarded now for friends and family — it’s criminal. It’s just really hard to understand.”

A Cuomo spokesman has denied allegations of preferential treatment outlined by The Times-Union, calling them “insincere efforts to rewrite the past.”

The Cuomo spokesman referenced in that last sentence is Richard Azzopardi.

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28 March 2021: Tom DiNapoli Holding Up State Investigation of Cuomo Nursing Home Scandals

One Man Is Standing in the Way of an Investigation into Cuomo's Nursing Home Scandal

This report explores why New York State Attorney General Letitia James has not yet begun a criminal investigation of the Cuomo administration's cover-up of the full extent of COVID nursing home resident deaths, despite uncovering and presenting evidence of it.

In January, New Yorkers were shocked to learn that the actual Covid-19 death tolls in the state’s nursing homes were as much as 50 percent higher than what had previously been disclosed. The misreporting, which was revealed in a report released by New York Attorney General Tish James on January 28, meant that thousands of deaths may have gone uncounted. And many of these deaths occurred in the early days of the pandemic, as Cuomo told hospitals to send coronavirus-positive patients back to the facilities, leading to rapid spread of the virus.

That scandal gained legs in February when the top aide to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, said that the misreporting was deliberate; Cuomo’s office wanted to throw off an investigation into the state’s handling of nursing homes. “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,” she said on a conference call with Democratic legislators....

James has not, however, begun an investigation into the Cuomo administration on its actions last spring, for a bureaucratic reason: She needs a referral from either Cuomo himself or Tom DiNapoli, the state’s low-profile comptroller, who has served since 2007. James has the statutory authority to investigate nursing homes, hence the January 28 report. She does not have the statutory authority to launch an investigation with subpoena power into the Cuomo administration without DiNapoli’s referral. (Theoretically, James could decline to investigate Cuomo’s handling of the nursing home crisis even if she received the referral from DiNapoli, though that seems very unlikely given her willingness to investigate the issue so far.)

The article identifies a political reason why DiNapoli has not acted to provide the formal referral needed to launch that investigation:

A nursing home investigation has the potential to be explosive for a much broader range of actors than just Cuomo, and DiNapoli is himself considering a run for governor. While DiNapoli, a mainstream Democrat who nonetheless has occasionally clashed with Cuomo, is among the Democratic politicians calling for Cuomo’s resignation over sexual harassment claims, so far his office has declined to make a referral. Most of the leading Democrats calling for his resignation have not specifically referred to the nursing home scandal, with a notable exception being powerful state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a longtime Cuomo foil who assailed his “loss of credibility surrounding the Covid-19 nursing home data” in addition to “allegations about sexual harassment.”...

A full spectrum investigation by James into the Cuomo administration’s handling of the nursing home crisis could expose a much broader set of powerful actors in the state — actors that DiNapoli, who is considering a run for governor, would confront by making the referral demanded by the families of nursing home Covid-19 victims. “I would imagine that [the lobby groups] don’t want any more investigations into their potential pay to play schemes,” said New York Assembly Member Ron Kim, a Democrat. “The timeline proves [pay to play] may have happened around corporate immunity.”

That agrees with our previous analysis on the topic. It took a lot of teamwork within the Cuomo administration to impose and enforce its deadly 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit COVID patients from hospitals seeking to free up bed space without testing to see if they were still contagious. It also took a lot of teamwork to ration Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to favor hospital employees at the expense of nursing homes, which greatly increased the risk nursing home employees would become infected and become superspreaders within the facilities where they worked because of the resulting shortages of PPE.

The focus on Governor Cuomo's sexual harassment scandals would appear designed to limit the damage to a lot of members of the Democratic Party in New York. To rectify that problem and begin cleaning house throughout the state government, Tom DiNapoli needs to stand up and formally request the state attorney general's investigation with subpoena power. Without it, justice for the families of victims of Governor Cuomo's COVID nursing home policies will be denied. Without it, Tom DiNapoli's personal integrity will always be found lacking. What legacy does Tom DiNapoli want to have for his career in public service? Who's interest will he choose to serve?

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28 March 2021: Editorial - Available Evidence Is Sufficient to Impeach Cuomo Now

Assembly has enough Cuomo scandals to impeach the governor now (Editorial)

The Assembly could have — should have — drafted articles of impeachment weeks ago with the considerable evidence it has at hand. By choosing to throw the investigation to the Judiciary Committee, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie squandered considerable momentum in Albany for holding the governor accountable for his alleged abuses of power....

The fact-finding process by the Judiciary Committee’s hired-gun Albany law firm is an unnecessary delaying tactic. The Assembly could start impeachment proceedings today with the public admissions from the governor’s staff that they obscured the number of nursing home deaths from Covid-19, including an episode where they scrubbed a report of numbers that made their boss look bad. Then, Cuomo’s “vaccine czar” called county executives to gauge their political support, walking right up to the ethical line of trading vaccine allocations for loyalty. Now, the Albany Times-Union reports that Cuomo’s family and associates got special access to state Covid testing at a time such tests weren’t available to the general public....

There are other problems with Judiciary’s probe. It will not be transparent. Meetings and testimony will happen behind closed doors. There is no deadline for completion, though Lavine said to expect it to take months, not weeks. Outside counsel Davis, Polk & Wardwell is under fire for a perceived conflict of interest; a former partner is married to Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, whom Cuomo appointed. The Judiciary Committee is stacked with lawyers, yet they outsource the investigation to insulate themselves from the governor’s wrath.

It's looking more and more like the New York Assembly's impeachment probe of Governor Cuomo is designed to prevent Governor Cuomo from being impeached. "Sham" might be the right word to describe it.

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28 March 2021: The Scandal of Nobody to Investigate Cuomo Testing Scandal

Cuomo's VIP tests may have violated state law. But who should investigate?

This article presents a deeper dive into the subject of who has the authority and sufficient independence from Governor Cuomo's political sway to investigate the governor's alleged diversion of scarce testing resources to unfairly benefit family members and well connected associates.

In theory, the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics would be the appropriate entity to enforce potential violations of the Public Officers Law, while the state Inspector General's Office is also tasked with investigating untoward conduct within the executive branch.

But both entities have significant ties to the Democratic governor that may be disqualifying: Cuomo has appointed a string of loyalists and former employees over the years to chair JCOPE, which has an earned reputation of working at a glacial pace. And Inspector General Letitizia Tagliafierro worked for Cuomo as far back as his days as state attorney general, though she could recuse herself from any investigation.

The inability to investigate alleged corruption by top New York officials appears to be by design:

Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Long Island Democrat who is a former federal prosecutor, said he believes state law is intentionally written in a way to limit who can investigate impartially. State law allows one party's JCOPE appointees to band together to block any investigation, for example.

"There can be a political remedy that could begin with the Assembly, but I think it's troubling that there should always be an ongoing professional entity to take complaints, investigate complaints and act on them, and that does not exist right now," Kaminsky said. "A party can block a JCOPE investigation, which is what's happened many times in the past."

But is there sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation of whether Governor Cuomo violated Section 74 of New York's Public Officers Law?

In this case, Cuomo appears to have violated the public officer's law, said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY.

She noted in the early weeks of the pandemic, people who were sick were encouraged to stay home and leave the tests to those who needed urged medical care — not home visits by state health officials to test Cuomo's family and associates.

"What does that say about the reliability of what the governor is telling the public?" Lerner said. "Is there one rule for the governor’s family and one rule for the public? That is not the way our state should be run."

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Saturday, March 27, 2021

27 March 2021: Editorial - The Needs of Grieving Families

Editorial: Grieving families still need closure

The editors of the New York Daily News identify why Governor Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandal stands above all of Governor Cuomo's other scandals:

There are several reasons that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is under fire from so many quarters, but one stands out among all the others because it ensnared so many New Yorkers — the nursing home scandal. Put simply, thousands of family members are still grieving over the loss of loved ones to COVID-19 — deaths they argue could have been prevented. Furthermore, the survivors say, the governor and state health officials lied to them to covered up their own carelessness.

That’s why scores of family members and friends of loved ones who died from COVID-19 in nursing homes joined lawmakers outside the state Capitol on Thursday to mourn the thousands of New Yorkers who died in adult-care facilities and designate a statewide day of remembrance in their honor.

They gathered on the one-year anniversary of the state Health Department’s now-infamous March 25, 2020, memorandum, which allowed COVID-positive residents to return to their nursing homes or adult-care facilities to recover. Adding to the dismay of families, the memo remained in effect until last May 10 and is not found on the Health Department’s website.

We'll interject here to provide important background information:

Continuing with the editorial:

Hard as it is to believe, more than 9,000 patients recovering from COVID-19 last year were discharged from hospitals and sent back to the state’s 613 nursing homes. More than 15,000 New York nursing home residents died from COVID-19 complications since the state’s first official case March 1, including those outside the facility in hospitals or hospice and presumed virus fatalities when testing was scarce.

Here is where the cited figures for number of transferred COVID patients and New York nursing home resident fatalities make their first appearances in the timeline:

Back to the editorial:

Harder to accept, the state reported just under 9,000 deaths until state Attorney General Letitia James released a report two months ago that the state undercounted the total virus-related nursing home fatalities up to 55%.

Here's when that blockbuster story erupted in the Cuomo nursing home scandals' timeline:

This is why the attorney general was correct to point out in her report that the March 25 Department of Health guidance was consistent with and followed federal guidance issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — but it was not a directive to accept COVID-19 patients if they could not otherwise provide appropriate care. As it turns out, the nursing homes understood the guidance but the state somehow did not. Family members and staff alike have said nursing homes were unprepared with Personal Protective Equipment, testing and personnel to successfully keep the virus at bay.

This section covers multiple topics, which we've covered in the timeline! First, let's look at where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) guidance for nursing homes intersects with the timeline:

Here's the timeline's summary of contemporary reports related to the lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), testing, and personnel at New York nursing homes:

Here's the Daily News' editors final word:

March 25, 2020, italicizes the difference between obstinacy and empathy and the need for accountability and justice for bereft families.

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27 March 2021: How Did Governor Cuomo Personally Gain From Nursing Home Deaths Coverup?

Cuomo’s Textbook Violations of His Own Sexual Harassment Law

Alex Burke is an employment lawyer who "regularly brings, defends, and investigates sexual harassment claims in New York". While this op-ed mainly focuses on the sexual harassment allegations facing Governor Cuomo, Berke identifies a common theme among all Governor Cuomo's scandals:

Cuomo’s multiple overlapping current (and former) crises, also including a cover-up of nursing home deaths, share a theme: abuse of power for personal gain. The sexual harassment claims, from eight women so far, including several staffers who worked for him, clearly demonstrate violations of the NYS Human Rights Law prohibiting sexual harassment—which the governor took credit for expanding. This law creates clear liability for the governor based on the actions currently alleged, including ones he’s admitted to.

Do click through for Berke's discussion of how New York's Human Rights Law applies to Cuomo's sexual harassment allegations, in which the alleged retaliation against accusers represents the textbook violations that make these cases easy to demonstrate in court.

From our reading, although Berke throws Governor Cuomo's undercounting of COVID nursing homes deaths scandal into the mix as an example of Governor Cuomo's abuse of power for personal gain, she doesn't connect the dots to demonstrate it in this article. What personal gain did Governor Cuomo realize through hiding the full extent of COVID deaths in New York nursing homes?

We'll connect some of those dots here. We think the cover-up would have provided at least the two following major personal gains to Governor Cuomo:

We think Berke is right about Governor Cuomo's scandals being connected by a common theme.

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Friday, March 26, 2021

26 March 2021: Cuomo Aides Received Subpoenas from NY Attorney General

Gov. Andrew Cuomo Aides Receive Subpoenas in Sexual-Harassment Investigation

This report indicates New York Attorney General Letitia James acted to issue subpoenas to several top Cuomo administration aides, including Melissa DeRosa, earlier this month. The attorney general is investigating the various sexual harassment allegations that have been levied against Governor Cuomo.

The New York state attorney general’s office has subpoenaed dozens of officials in the Cuomo administration, including his top aide, requesting that they produce documents as part of an investigation of sexual-harassment accusations against the governor, according to people familiar with the matter.

Melissa DeRosa, whose title is secretary to the governor and who has been at the center of the state’s pandemic response, is among the officials to receive a subpoena earlier this month, the people said. Investigators for the attorney general have also questioned women accusing Gov. Andrew Cuomo of inappropriate behavior about their interactions with Ms. DeRosa, the women and their lawyers said.

It seems odds that James isn't investigating DeRosa's 11 February 2021 admission the Cuomo administration falsely reported the full extent of COVID deaths among nursing home residents while the administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect, but that would require the formal request of State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli to initiate that criminal investigation.

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26 March 2021: Evening Roundup of Cuomo Scandal News

How many scandals does Governor Cuomo have? We don't know yet, because the numeric answer is still increasing, but the following article provides a nice, though incomplete, summary of several of the bigger ones:

As part of his strategy to stay in power, Governor Cuomo is playing his race cards. He's already been called out for exploiting fears of false persecution among his supporters in the "Black community", but what do New York's "Black community leaders" think of being used as a shield by the Governor?

Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo staged a "press conference" to feature his allies in the Latino community, where we have to put the words "press conference" in quotation marks because the event didn't include any members of New York's "Reporter community" or its "Journalist community":

We'll close this evening edition with a bit of good news. WLNY reports NY families who have been blocked from visiting relatives in NY nursing homes by Governor Cuomo's restrictions will finally be able to see them in person:

Here's WLNY's video report:

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26 March 2021: Opinion - CNN's Cuomo Coverage Reeks of "Unaccountable Elitism"

Opinion: CNN’s Chris Cuomo got special treatment from New York, confirming worst suspicions about media elites

Eric Wemple, the media columnist for the Washington Post recognizes the damage CNN has accrued from permitting the inherent conflicts of interest involving their evening Prime Time broadcast host Chris Cuomo and his brother, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, fester without restraint.

The ethical pitfall in this relationship, it turns out, was deeper than just brother interviewing brother. As reported by the Times Union of Albany and The Post on Wednesday, Chris Cuomo received special treatment from the state for the coronavirus: “The CNN anchor was swabbed by a top New York Department of Health doctor, who visited his Hamptons home to collect samples from him and his family, the people with knowledge of the matter said,” reports The Post. Chris Cuomo announced on March 31 that he had tested positive for the coronavirus....

The Erik Wemple Blog has asked CNN about the treatment Chris Cuomo received, among other questions. Spokesman Matt Dornic issued this statement to outlets: “We generally do not get involved in the medical decisions of our employees. However, it is not surprising that in the earliest days of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, when Chris was showing symptoms and was concerned about possible spread, he turned to anyone he could for advice and assistance, as any human being would.”

Instead of addressing the ethical questions raised by the arrangement, CNN appears to be crediting the resourcefulness of its well-positioned anchor....

Now there’s another layer to the ethical morass: As Chris Cuomo was promoting his brother’s leadership on CNN, he was receiving services derived from that relationship. We’ve asked CNN about the degree to which he disclosed the situation publicly and within the network.

After receiving his positive test result, Cuomo said on his show, “I’m hesitant to talk about me because who cares?” Actually, a lot of people care about the activities of CNN’s prime-time hosts — especially when they reek of unaccountable elitism forced into the light of day via investigative reporting.

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26 March 2021: A Public Vigil for a Victim of Governor Cuomo's Deadly Directive

Families Gather for Vigil One Year After Cuomo Directive Sending COVID-19 Patients into Nursing Homes

This article describes one family's loss they attribute to Governor Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive.

Aida Pabey and her siblings are grieving the loss of their mother Elba Pabey.

They say she died of COVID-19 on April 6 at the Isabella Geriatric Center in Washington Heights, not long after Governor Andrew Cuomo made the controversial order to allow COVID-19 patients back into nursing homes.

“That doesn’t make any sense. There are vulnerable population and you’re gonna bring people that are COVID positive? And I feel like it’s more fault, like, I could’ve at least kept her to stay in my home, but I couldn’t anymore,” said Pabey.

The Pabeys were among the many families and elected officials who attended a vigil at Foley Square Thursday to mark one year since that March 25 directive from the governor.

Using statistics and the known median time from initial exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus to death attributed to COVID-19, Pabey's death occurred early within the window of time in which the deaths of New York nursing home relatives could potentially be traced to the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive.

Changes in trend associated with that policy's implementation would most likely be established between the dates of 11 April 2020 and 15 April 2020 related to any COVID patients transferred into a nursing home on 25 March 2020, though that does not account for the affected residents' existing state of health. Residents whose state of health was already in poor condition would be more likely to die earlier after their initial exposure to the coronavirus.

That's exactly why one wouldn't place COVID patients into nursing homes without testing to verify if they were still contagious. And that's exactly what Governor Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive mandated and what his administration enforced.

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26 March 2021: Who Will Investigate Cuomo's COVID Testing Scandal?

For Now, No Clear Investigation Emerges from COVID Testing Controversy

This report indicates the short answer to the question "who will investigate Governor Cuomo's testing scandal?" is "nobody knows".

It's not yet fully clear who would investigate the latest allegations against Cuomo, who is already plagued by controversies and investigations stemming from claims of sexual harassment and scrutiny over his handling of nursing home fatality data during the pandemic. In both of those instances, Cuomo's office has maintained he's never touched anyone inappropriately, nor did the state undercount resident deaths.

The official leading the state Assembly's impeachent probe suggests they're going to try to limit their focus on three of Governor Cuomo's scandals?

Assemblyman Charles Lavine, the top Democrat on the Assembly Judiciary Committee leading the impeachment investigation, said in an interview on Thursday the chamber's primary focus remained on the sexual harassment allegations, the handling of nursing homes and concerns over the construction of the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project.

Lavine offered up a lawyerly explanation of the impeachment investigations focus: “I don’t mean to suggest that the allegations involving preferential treatment will not be included in the probe, but the main focus is the three issues that I mentioned."

Meanwhile, the state's attorney general claims she doesn't have jurisdiction to investigate the Governor's alleged diversion of scarce resources to benefit his friends and family:

Attorney General Letitia James's office, which is investigating the sexual harassment reports through an appointed counsel, said through a spokesman it does not have jurisdiction to investigate the reports of preferential testing, but urged the Joint Commission on Public Ethics to take it up.

But the Joint Commission on Public Ethics may be compromised:

For good-government advocates, the agency is a flawed vehicle at best given its composition includes Cuomo appointees who lead it.

That's the situation of foxes guarding the henhouse. It also leads to the frustrating conclusion that nobody in New York will seriously investigate the Governor Cuomo's COVID testing for friends and family scandal:

"That's where this sort of gets dumped into the black hole," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "How does it get resolved other than these other vehicles looking at harassment claims or impeachment? It gets dumped into that."

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26 March 2021: A Profile of Melissa DeRosa

Cuomo’s Top Aide Defends Her Boss and Herself: ‘I’m a Human Being’

This article reports Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa is the second highest paid employee of New York's state government, earning more than Governor Cuomo. If you recall, Melissa DeRosa is the Cuomo administration official who acknowledged on 12 February 2021 they were covering up the full extent of COVID nursing home resident deaths during the period the administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect.

Here's how the report introduces her:

On a ranking of New York power brokers last year, the most influential person after Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo wasn’t the Assembly speaker or state Senate majority leader. It was Melissa DeRosa, one of the few people to pierce the governor’s fiercely guarded inner circle.

DeRosa’s unassuming title of secretary to the governor belies her clout as the three-term Democrat’s highest-ranking aide. With Cuomo facing calls to resign over claims of sexual harassment and accusations that his administration undercounted coronavirus deaths data, she has emerged as one of his chief defenders.

The ascent of the daughter of a powerful Albany lobbyist to the role of Cuomo’s enforcer -- like him, known for expletive-filled phone calls -- highlights how the governor surrounds himself with people, many of them women, who defend his well-documented aggressive demeanor. And they do so while helping him burnish his image of a governor who champions women’s rights....

“It’s DeRosa’s job to be Cuomo’s on-staff fixer and make things work for him,” said John Kaehny, executive director of government watchdog group Reinvent Albany. “For Cuomo, everything is about consolidating power and controlling the political narrative, whether that’s showing his control over Covid or otherwise, and DeRosa is effective at channeling the governor and implementing his every desire and will.”

DeRosa is cited in accounts by at least two of his accusers. She’s also accused of asking state health officials to alter a public report that outlined the true extent of the number of nursing-home residents who died, claims the administration has denied.

The article contains just one new statement from DeRosa:

“Media accounts have reduced me to a caricature, but I’m a human being who truly believes in and cares deeply about government and public service,” she said. “I’ve worked incredibly hard throughout my career and especially during the pandemic. I didn’t sleep. The last thing I would do in my day is call family members of health-care workers who died and tell them I’m sorry for their pain, and then close the door, lay on the floor and cry. I am not the one-dimensional person that has been portrayed in the press.”

Much of the rest of the article describes her involvement in several episodes of alleged sexual harassment and abusive conduct on the part of Governor Cuomo.

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26 March 2021: CNN Shreds Remnants of Its Credibility

CNN Won’t Even Speak the Name Cuomo On Air, Following Newest of Many Scandals

Every time we think CNN might have hit bottom, they dig their credibility hole deeper. This report finds that it's what CNN isn't saying that screams the loudest about what little remains of its journalistic credibility:

“Good evening. Chris Cuomo is off tonight.” That sentence, uttered at 1:02:16 AM Thursday in a re-airing of Wednesday’s Anderson Cooper 360°, is the only time the name “Cuomo” has been spoken on CNN all day. The day after news of yet another scandal involving New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo broke. A story that involves his brother, CNN’s own Chris Cuomo. Who was “off tonight.”

CNN did not report Thursday on this latest major scandal involving the governor, which involves allegations of favoritism and outright nepotism in his leadership and handling of the Covid-19 pandemic in the state.

For more about the Cuomo scandal story CNN isn't covering, see our entry 25 March 2021: Looking Out for Número Cuomo.

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26 March 2021: Did NY Governor Break Law Looking Out for Número Cuomo?

Did New York Governor Cuomo break the law by looking out for número Cuomo?

Zack Fink tweeted the answer to that question after finding out:

We guess we won't hear about any of this on CNN!

But the new scandal would appear set to be investigated by NY Attorney General Letitia James and will, of course, be considered by Assembly Speaker Carl "Scope Creep" Heastie's intentionally designed, neverending bottomless pit of an impeachment probe:

Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo appears to have really gone out of the way to send COVID testing kits to a major supporter:

Giving credit where it's due, the latter story is from the New York Times, which ventured outside its usual sexual harassment allegation beat.

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