Altered report from Cuomo advisers on deaths in Covid-19 nursing homes

The changes made by Mr. Cuomo’s aides and health officials to the residency report, which have not been previously disclosed, reveal that the state had a more complete account of deaths outside the facilities of the residences. residences. The Department of Health resisted calls from state and federal lawmakers, the media and others to divulge the data for another eight months.

State officials say more than 15,000 residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities have confirmed or presumed Covid-19’s death since March last year, counting as many as those who died. in long-term care centers such as those who later died in hospitals. This figure is approximately 50% higher than the official figures of previous deaths.

Mr Cuomo is now facing growing political pressure both for his administration’s treatment of the pandemic in nursing homes and for allegations of sexually harassing two former officials. Republicans and some Democrats have called for the governor to step down or be indicted.

Cuomo has rejected resignation requests and apologized for his behavior. With regard to deaths in residences, Mr. Cuomo has said his administration followed federal guidelines and acted to preserve hospital capacity.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors asked the Cuomo administration in February for information on residential deaths, The Wall Street Journal reported. Federal prosecutors expressed interest in the July report, people familiar with the matter said.

In response to questions from the newspaper, administration officials said Thursday that Mr. Cuomo’s advisers were advocating that data on deaths outside the facilities not be included because they had concerns about its accuracy.

“Off-premises data was omitted after DOH could not confirm that it had been properly verified,” Beth Garvey, special adviser and senior adviser to Mr Cuomo, said in a statement.

An official familiar with the round trip between the Department of Health and Mr Cuomo’s advisers said state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker agreed that off-premises data should not be included. in the report.

“[The Department of Health] was comfortable with the final report and fully believes in its conclusion that the main driver who introduced Covid to nursing homes was taken by staff, ”said Gary Holmes, a spokesman for the Department of Health.

The Department of Health updated the report on Feb. 11 to include deaths outside the facilities of residents in nursing homes, saying its findings were not changed by the new data.

State lawmakers on both sides have said off-site death data was crucial in assessing nursing home policies that could prevent future fatalities. They said the Cuomo administration’s decision to delay its publication constitutes a cover-up of data that the governor knew would be detrimental to his political stature.

Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s chief aide, explained the delay to state lawmakers during a Feb. 10 meeting. He said the state set aside a legislative request for the data due to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. DeRosa said the state was concerned that the administration of former President Donald Trump would politicize the information, according to a transcript.

The Department of Justice, through its Civil Rights Division, began soliciting information in New York and other democratic-leaning states in New York and other democratic-leaning states about residency deaths.

The initial July report was the product of a study by the Department of Health on the factors that contributed to the number of deaths in residences. The agency undertook the study in response to complaints from state lawmakers and people who lost loved ones that a March 25 Health Department directive encouraged the spread of the virus among members of the most vulnerable population. of the state.

That directive said no nursing home could refuse to readmit residents or admit new residents to hospitals just because of a diagnosis of Covid-19.

The July report concluded that nursing homes were already full of viruses at the time of the March 25 policy and attributed the spread to staff bringing him to work.

Several of Mr. Cuomo’s top advisers – who were members of his Covid-19 working group – reviewed and requested changes to the report, according to the newspaper.

They include Mrs. DeRosa; Dr. Zucker; Jim Malatras, a longtime adviser who was appointed chancellor of the New York public university system in August; and Linda Lacewell, the superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services.

The lead author of the report was Eleanor Adams, who until August worked in the regional office of the Metropolitan Area of ​​the Department of Health in a unit that focuses on infection control in facilities Health care, said one of the people. Dr. Adams has since become Dr. Zucker’s senior advisor.

The initial version of the report presented to Mr. Cuomo for his review included both data on deaths of residents in nursing homes in hospitals and deaths of residents in residences, according to people familiar with the production of the report.

Although health department officials agreed to remove the data, they resisted requests from Cuomo’s aides to alter the report to minimize the role of the March 25 directive in spreading the virus, some said. of people.

The published report concluded that the directive “was not a significant factor in fatalities in residences.”

“Officials on the Covid working group did not request that the report conclude that the March 25 order played no role,” Ms. Garvey said in a statement. “The members of the working group, who knew that the report was necessary to support rigorous public scrutiny, were very cautious in not exaggerating the statistical analysis presented in the report. In general, ensuring the confidence of the public in conclusion was the ultimate goal of DOH and the Covid working group in issuing the report. “

The March 25 order came as hospitals rushed to make room for the long-awaited wave of coronavirus patients.

Nursing home operators, who learned of the policy only after it was published, immediately opposed it and said it would introduce the virus to its facilities. A national group representing health care providers in nursing homes said at the time that the March 25 directive “was in no way compatible with the principles of patient safety.”

A spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Health, Jill Montag, said in August that the decision to issue the directive was “made on the merits by DOH public health experts and beyond. [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] i [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] Health Department officials did not provide an updated statement when asked on Thursday.

The CMS and CDC guide at the time said nursing homes could accept residents who had been diagnosed with Covid-19 if they could follow the necessary precautions to prevent transmission.

The Cuomo administration overturned the directive in May.

The July report said the number of residential residents who died of Covid-19 was low relative to other northeastern states when measured as a percentage of the global population. But the other states counted the residents of residences who died in hospitals, as well as those who died in residences.

In January, a report from the New York Attorney General stated that the state had accounted for the deaths of nursing homes and that the governor’s directive could have spread the disease.

—Lisa Schwartz and Corinne Ramey contributed to this article.

Write to Joe Palazzolo to [email protected], Jimmy Vielkind to [email protected] and Rebecca Davis O’Brien to [email protected]