28 August 2021: Editorial - FOIL Requests for NY COVID Data and Documents Await Action

COVID deaths need more light

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has a unique opportunity to overturn a decade of Andrew M. Cuomo's opaque machinations in state government. As this editorial notes, all she needs to do is to fulfill many of the Freedom of Information Act requests that watchdog organizatoins and members of the public have filed related to the state's public COVID data and documents.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has done the right thing — quickly — in acknowledging the additional 12,000 COVID deaths in New York.

But it is only the first step in untangling the tangled web of what happened in the state’s nursing homes last year. Now that Hochul has shone a light on one of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s worst-kept secrets, it’s time for Hochul to allow a light to be shone on secrets that could help prevent thousands of deaths in the future by approving an Empire Center for Public Policy FOIL request denied by Cuomo’s Health Department on Cuomo’s final day in office.

“One of our FOILs sought details behind the higher death toll of 55,000 — but DOH denied it on Monday afternoon, during the closing hours of the Cuomo administration. Rather than providing an explanation, they directed us to the limited data already available through the state’s data portal, which counts only confirmed deaths in hospitals, nursing homes and adult-care facilities. This is unacceptable,” Bill Hammond, Empire Center senior fellow, said in a statement.

The Empire Center has filed 60 Freedom of Information Law requests in hopes of revealing a clearer picture of the state’s COVID-19 response. Less than 10 have been granted.

Systematically releasing the requested documents and data over a short period of time will be an effective way of proving New York's state government is under new, better management.