A senior aide to Governor Andrew Cuomo now claims the New York Leader intentionally concealed facts regarding nursing home fatalities and CoVID from federal authorities and the media in the early days of the pandemic.
“Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for withholding the state’s nursing home death toll from COVID-19 — telling them “we froze” out of fear that the true numbers would ‘be used against us’ by federal prosecutors,” reports the New York Post.
“The stunning admission of a coverup was made by secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa during a video conference call with state Democratic leaders in which she said the Cuomo administration had rebuffed a legislative request for the tally in August because ‘right around the same time, [then-President Donald Trump] turns this into a giant political football,’ according to an audio recording of the two-hour-plus meeting,” adds the newspaper.
Cuomo aide admits they hid nursing home data so feds wouldn't find out https://t.co/MBi8111XN6 pic.twitter.com/vxyIXGoRUI
— New York Post (@nypost) February 12, 2021
“He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes,” DeRosa said. “He starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer.”
“And basically, we froze,” she told the lawmakers.
Read the full report at the New York Post.
AOC: New York Gov Cuomo’s Response ‘Creating a Class and Race Issue’ During Coronavirus Crisis
Controversial Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez singled-out New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Tuesday; accusing the top Democrat of “creating a class and race issue” during the Coronavirus crisis.
“If you called for a suspension or moratorium on mortgage payments, then we should also call for that same treatment on rent payments,” said Rep. Ocasio-Cortez.
“We’re kind of creating a class and race issue. We’re essentially rewarding and offering preferential treatment to landowners and folks who are more wealthy, and we’re not offering that same kind of relief to renters,” she added.
“I think our policy answers it,” Cuomo said Monday. “You cannot be evicted for non-payment of rent. It’s not that you won’t owe rent at one time, right, because you signed a contract. Even the people to whom you pay the rent have to pay the rent, right, and they have expenses. So, no evictions for nonpayment of rent and then we’ll see where we are and we’ll see how long this goes on.”
Read the full report here.
BETSY McCAUGHEY: ‘We Don’t Have a Ventilator Shortage- Leaders Chose Not to Prepare for Pandemic’
By Betsy McCaughey
The novel coronavirus is causing working-age people to worry about missing paychecks, caring for kids home from school, stockpiling groceries and canceling plans. But people in their 50s, 60s or older have bigger worries. Many are lying awake wondering if this is how they are going to die.
At its most severe, the coronavirus attacks the lungs, making it impossible to breathe without a ventilator. Landing in the hospital on a ventilator is bad. But worse is being told you can’t have one.
Hospitals in New York are running short. To his credit, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is doing his best, but he admits “you can’t find available ventilators no matter how much you’re willing to pay right now, because there is literally a global run on ventilators.”
It’s a little late. Several years ago, after learning that the Empire State’s stockpile of medical equipment had 16,000 fewer ventilators than the 18,000 New Yorkers would need in a severe pandemic, state public-health leaders came to a fork in the road.
Read the full report at the NY Post.