Emails from former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s senior staff revealed Cuomo was intimately involved in drafting a New York State Health Department report that deflected blame for thousands of nursing home resident deaths due to COVID-19 in early 2020.
During his testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic earlier this month, Cuomo denied any responsibility for the March 25, 2020, directive that required nursing homes to take in patients with COVID-19, saying instead that it was developed entirely within the NYSHD.
Cuomo also vehemently denied being involved in the drafting of the NYSHD report that downplayed the role of the March 25 order by instead blaming the high number of nursing home-related deaths on staff who had COVID-19.
The former governor told the select subcommittee during his public hearing this month that he had not even seen a draft of the report before it was released to the public.
But emails obtained by the New York Times indicate that Cuomo personally wrote parts of early drafts of the NYSHD report.
One email, sent from Cuomo’s assistant, Farah Kennedy, on June 23, 2020, to several senior staff members referenced an attached file with the “governor’s edits.” Other email exchanges referenced physical copies of the NYSHD report being transported back and forth between the governor’s mansion and senior staff.