17 November 2021: Editorial - Independent Review of Cuomo's COVID Response Needed

EDITORIAL: Independent review of state’s covid response is needed

The transcripts of Dr. Elizabeth Dufort's testimony in the state attorney general's sexual harassment probe of Andrew M. Cuomo's misconduct in office that are not related to his alleged creepy behavior is raising questions about the governor's true performance in New York's response to 2020's coronavirus pandemic. The Daily Gazette's editors are the first to call for an independent review of that performance.

Maybe if Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s staff had helped him write the real story of his management of the covid crisis instead of the vanity book that got published, New Yorkers would have been spared some of the deadly ravages of the pandemic.

Last week, state Attorney General Letitia James released thousands of pages of transcripts from interviews with the former governor and those who came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment. It was those claims that led to Cuomo’s resignation in August....

But the testimony of one state official, Dr. Elizabeth Dufort, the former director of epidemiology for the state Health Department, reveals that the governor wasn’t the super-manager of the crisis he presented himself to be.

The editors summarize the revelations from her testimony under oath, before calling for a full independent review of Cuomo's pandemic performance:

Among the most damning revelations was that the administration hindered the state’s response to the crisis at times by blocking Cuomo’s Health Department from working together with local health officials.

Among those shut out were officials from the New York City Department of Health and Hygiene, Dufort testified. New York City at one point, and for a long time, was the epicenter of the national outbreak.

Dufort also testified that the state delayed the release of information such as lab results to local health departments or doctors, potentially making it more difficult for them to respond in the most effective manner.

She also noted concerns over delays in reporting accurate nursing home data, the flawed strategy of isolating areas of large covid outbreaks, the delays in issuing covid guidelines for schools, the challenge and frustration of health professionals in dealing with non-medical staff in the administration, the special treatment for favored individuals in early testing, and the burnout among health professionals because of the enforced heavy workload.

For the health and well-being of all New Yorkers, Gov. Kathy Hochul must authorize a full, independent review of the administration’s response that includes a plan for dealing with a similar crisis in the future.

When the full story of the state’s covid response is told, librarians may have to move Cuomo’s book to the Fiction section.

Andrew M. Cuomo has far more to answer for than the multiple allegations of sexual harassment that led him to choose to resign as a disgrace rather than face impeachment.