On Monday, New York Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo admitted that his administration should have shared more information to the public and should have done so despite the growing scandal about how his administration handled nursing homes during the pandemic.
Fox News reported, “In his first press conference since reports surfaced that his office underreported or withheld critical information on nursing home deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, Cuomo said all relevant information was ‘fully, publicly and accurately reported.’”
Cuomo on whether he’ll apologize for the mass death in N.Y. nursing homes: "I accept responsibility" for letting people wrongly think I did anything wrong pic.twitter.com/YOMqnmjtRr
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 15, 2021
However, when Cuomo was asked if he felt a need to apologize, the Democrat governor stated that his team’s failure to address the concerns openly merely created a “void” that fostered the spread of different conspiracy theories.
“Apologize? Look, I have said repeatedly, we made a mistake in creating the void,” Cuomo said. He continued, “The void allowed misinformation and conspiracy, and now people are left with the thought of ‘Did my loved one have to die?’ And that is a brutal, brutal question to pose to a person. And I want everyone to know everything was done — everything was done — by the best minds in the best interest, and the last thing that we wanted to do, the last thing that I wanted to do, was to aggravate a terrible situation.”
Reporter asks Gov Andrew Cuomo if he had anything to apologize for over how he's released info on Covid-19 nursing home deaths.
“Apologize? Look, I have said repeatedly we made a mistake in creating the void," he said. "We should have done a better job."https://t.co/hJPz080dea
— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) February 15, 2021
In addition to that, Cuomo also said that there is “nothing to investigate” about the concealment of data that Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa allegedly confessed during a talk with Democrat lawmakers last week.
However, during the press conference, one of the most controversial comments that Cuomo made was when he said, “all the deaths in the nursing homes and the hospitals were always fully publicly and accurately reported.”
Cuomo continued, “The numbers were the numbers, always.”
However, contrary to Cuomo’s statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James previously stated that the number of deaths in nursing homes was undercounted by as much as 50%.
These numbers were bolstered by a shocking revelation made by a top gubernatorial staffer, Melissa DeRosa, who admitted that Cuomo’s administration “froze” last August when they were asked to release information about the number of deaths in nursing homes. DeRosa also added that they hid these numbers amid fears that it would be used against them in an investigation by the then Trump Administration’s Department of Justice.
Meanwhile, when Cuomo also stated that his administration’s decision to send some COVID patients from hospitals to nursing homes should not be considered a “political decision.” The Democratic governor said, “They’re all made on the best information the medical professionals have at the time. … Nobody’s been here before.”
We were told that New York had to send COVID patients into nursing homes in order to free up space in hospitals. But Trump sent a Naval hospital ship to New York to handle overflow patients and it floated mostly empty for weeks. Why didn't Cuomo use the ships?
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 12, 2021
Cuomo also argued that there is no evidence to support that his administration’s decision to send COVID patients to nursing homes is actually the cause of the high death rate in these facilities. He also tried to point at charts, showing that the percentage of COVID deaths in New York in these nursing homes was way lower than other states.
When the New York governor was asked about what he might have differently, Cuomo answered, “Most of all, the void we created allowed disinformation, and that created more anxieties for the families of loved ones,” he said.
Cuomo also made remarks about the “truths” surrounding the pandemic, stating, “the truth is everybody did everything they could. The truth is you had the best medical professionals and advice on the globe. The truth is it was in the middle of a terrible pandemic. The truth is Covid attacks senior citizens. The truth is with all we know, people still die in nursing homes today.”
How many times will I have to read “Mr. Cuomo rejected any notion that his administration was at fault” https://t.co/OzBRBmQesa
— Chart Riggall (@chartriggall) January 5, 2021
On the other hand, Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt condemned Cuomo, saying, “The Governor seems incapable of comprehending that it was his Administration at fault, and nobody else. He continues to shift the blame anywhere but upon himself and his top officials.”
