NYT Details Andrew Cuomo's Nursing Home Death Toll Cover-Up

On October 12, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters that "there's a lot of politics being played" with the number of deaths at nursing homes throughout the state. The next day, Cuomo's book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, was published and became a best-seller. Meanwhile, as the New York Times reported Wednesday, Cuomo's top aides had spent five months hiding the true nursing home death toll and that the governor spent that time "overruling state health officials" from releasing the true death toll. 

By now you know the premise of how this all went down. Cuomo's policy forced nursing homes to take COVID patients discharged from hospitals. The death toll at New York nursing homes soon exploded. The Times reports that less than two months later, Cuomo's nursing home policy ended and the death toll was off. The paper says the aides knew it and the stonewalling began during the summer when questions started being raised.

And it continued all the way through October when the New York State Department of Health wrote a letter that was to release the true number of deaths as of October 30.

“I hope you find the information to be helpful as the state continues to examine this important issue,” Dr. Howard Zucker from NYSDH wrote in the letter.