NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was reportedly directly involved in altering a state report that undercounted COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, according to a U.S. House committee investigation. The investigation found that Cuomo’s aides pressured health officials to release the report despite concerns it would lead to a “catastrophe.”
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Early in the pandemic, Governor Cuomo approved a controversial policy requiring nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients, a decision that led to an estimated 9,000 additional COVID-19 deaths, according to final reports and available testimony.
The findings were part of an investigation by the House Select Committee on COVID-19, which accused Cuomo’s office of lying and concealing the true number of nursing home deaths. The committee’s report detailed how Cuomo’s office edited state Department of Health reports to significantly under-report the number of deaths.
In June 2020, Stephanie Benton, a senior adviser to Governor Cuomo, warned of the seriousness of the situation in an email, saying, “This will go down in history as a monumental blunder.”
According to the report, Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker was provided with talking points that ultimately influenced the audit, such as excluding deaths that occurred outside of nursing homes. Cuomo’s top aide, Melissa DeRosa, also reportedly helped shape those talking points by reviewing and editing the report.
Jim Malatras, who was Governor Cuomo’s operations director at the time, testified that DeRosa and Cuomo himself were heavily involved in revising the report, changing language to make it less clear and to minimize the direct connection between the nursing home directives and the rising death toll.
