14 July 2021: "Cuomo Doesn't Deserve the Benefit of the Doubt"

New York keeps publicizing lower COVID-19 death count than the federal figures

This report captures more of the reaction to the revelation Andrew M. Cuomo's administration is continuing to conceal the full extent of COVID deaths in New York.

“The overall undercounting of COVID deaths is the nursing home scandal all over again,” said Bill Hammond, senior fellow at the Empire Center Center for Public Policy.

Hammond and the Empire Center filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against Cuomo after the state refused to release the total number of nursing home residents who died from the coronavirus.

A judge ruled the Cuomo administration violated the law and ordered them to release the complete data to the Empire Center.

A separate stinging report by state Attorney General Letitia James found that the state was undercounting COVID-19 nursing home resident deaths by 50 percent.

“After what’s happened, Cuomo doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. You have to suspect the motives,” said Hammond.

“We knew they were violating the law on nursing homes. That was a political decision on their part to save face,” he added.

That motive likely applies in this case as well.