House Democrats released their own investigative report on the COVID-19 crisis Tuesday that scorched fellow Democratic ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo for “interfering” with the accounting of nursing home deaths during the peak of the killer pandemic and undercounting the toll by excluding fatalities that happened after patients were taken to the hospital.
The minority report came a day after the Republican-led House Select-Subcommittee on the COVID-19 pandemic panel released its own report Monday that found that Cuomo committed “medical malpractice” for the order that nursing homes must admit infected patients in March 2020.
More than 15,000 seniors died in the state’s nursing homes following the order — which experts say allowed the deadly virus to spread like wildfire among vulnerable patients.
Cuomo — who is mulling a comeback bid for New York City mayor after resigning as governor in 2021 amid accusations of sexual misconduct, which he denies — sought to dismiss the GOP majority final report as a partisan witch hunt.
But he can’t use that argument against fellow Democrats.
The Dem report said Cuomo and top aides’ meddling with the data misled the public about the number of nursing home residents who died from COVID.
“Any public official who sought to evade transparency or mislead the public about the COVID-19 pandemic should be held accountable,” the House Democrats’ report said.
“The Cuomo executive chamber interfered with the data reporting of the New York State Department of Health,” concluded the report.
The Democrats on the panel, led by California Rep. Raul Ruiz, slammed Cuomo’s “executive chamber” for “removing out-of-facility deaths” from the state Department of Health’s official tally, particularly the much-criticized July 6, 2020 department report.
Thousands of nursing home residents with COVID died at hospitals, where they were transported after falling ill — what the report called “out of families deaths.” But those deaths were not included in the early tallies released to the public.
“The Executive Chamber delayed releasing nursing home death data to the New York State legislature,” the report said.
The final report referenced Cuomo top aide Melissa DeRosa’s remark that “we froze” in fear about the true toll of nursing home deaths — a comment first reported by The Post in February 2021. But DeRosa later clarified her comments, the report also noted, to mean the administration had “paused” its release of nursing home death stats until the 2021 legislative session so that it could settle the Department of Justice inquiry.
DeRosa told state Dem leaders in a video calls that she feared the “true numbers” would be used “against us” by the Department of Justice during Donald Trump’s presidency.
The controversy over the release of nursing home deaths unfolded while Cuomo wrote a $5 million profit-making book touting his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cuomo, through a representative, defended his handling of COVID and swatted back at criticism over the release of nursing home deaths.
“The overall number of COVID fatalities was never in dispute, the data that was released was accurate,” said Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi.
“The out-of-facility COVID deaths numbers weren’t initially released because the administration was complying with two politicized DOJ investigations and due to concerns regarding their accuracy – a point the subcommittee Democrats said possibly ‘later proved prescient’ as an audit revealed a 20 percent error rate on out of facility deaths,” he added.
It was DeRosa, according to the House Democrats’ report, who forcefully ordered that nursing home deaths that occurred at hospitals be excluded from earlier reporting.
The Democrats’ criticism of Cuomo’s management of the pandemic was not as severe as the House GOP majority.
The Republican report concluded that Cuomo was “directly involved” with the controversial edict that forced nursing homes to admit patients who were infected with COVID but were recovering in the early days of the pandemic. The report concluded that this was one of the reasons he “covered up” nursing home fatalities.
The GOP-led panel also concluded that “Andrew Cuomo likely gave false statements to the select subcommittee” — a federal crime that, if proven, could result in up to five years in prison.
In another finding, the GOP report concluded that Cuomo “acted in a manner consistent with an attempt to inappropriately influence the testimony of a witness and obstruct the Select Subcommittee’s investigation,” referring to his contacts with former adviser James Malatras.
The Democratic report did not fault Cuomo for the nursing home edict — which was rescinded 6 weeks after it was issues — nor did it say he attempted to tamper with a witness.
Azzopardi, the Cuomo rep, said the House Dems’ report concluded that COVID infections in nursing homes in New York “were consistent nationally, based on community spread — not the March 25 DOH guidance.”
Still, state Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), who chairs the committee on Aging and was one of the harshest critics of the then-governor during the pandemic, said he agrees with the GOP majority report’s findings and said Cuomo should be prosecuted.
“Cuomo needs to be charged with criminal fraud and perjury,” said Kim, who called a Cuomo bid for mayor a “non-starter.”
“His decisions during the pandemic led to thousands of unnecessary deaths.”
