Cuomo committed ‘medical malpractice’ during COVID crisis: House report

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo committed “medical malpractice” and publicly undercounted the total number of COVID-related nursing home deaths in New York during the worst period of the killer pandemic, a damning final investigative report released by a key House panel found.

The report from the Republican-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, released Monday, also concluded that Cuomo “likely gave false statements” about his role in pandemic decision-making.

That includes him actually being “directly involved” in the infamous March 2020 edict directing nursing homes to admit recovering COVID-19 patients — and downplaying pandemic-related deaths of residents in a July 2020 report, the House panel found.

In another finding, the 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 House had previously released documents laying out the allegations about Cuomo and his administration’s actions — but the more-than 500-page final report paints a devastating picture of the three-term Democratic governor’s decisions that the subcommittee claims undermined public health.

Cuomo — who is weighing a political comeback run for mayor after resigning as governor in 2021 amid sexual misconduct accusations he denied — ripped the report as a partisan GOP witch hunt.

“This is the same weak gruel the MAGA Republicans on this committee have been peddling for months if not years,” said Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi.

But Rep. Brad Wenstrup, an Ohio Republican who chaired the panel, said in the opening letter of the report that there was bipartisan consensus on numerous topics including “that former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo participated in medical malpractice and publicly covered up the total number of nursing home fatalities in New York.”

A more than 40-page section of the report focuses solely on Cuomo and the state government’s response to the pandemic. Cuomo’s name appears in the report 203 times.

Among the findings alleged in the report are that:

• The Cuomo administration’s March 25, 2020 directive to admit or readmit recovering COVID-19 patients into nursing homes was “medical malpractice,” “antithetical to known science” and inconsistent with federal guidance — and the Executive Chamber “attempted to cover it up.”
• Contrary to his denials during House testimony, Cuomo and his top aides and advisers were “directly Involved” in and approved the infamous directive, which was later rescinded following public outcry.
• Cuomo administration officials testified that the governor ordered the controversial July 6, 2020 state Department of Health report — which was criticized for lowballing nursing home resident deaths from COVID — to combat criticism of the March 25 edict.
• Cuomo was directly involved in editing the July report and directing people outside the government — such as Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling and Greater NY Hospital CEO Kenneth Raske to review it. In a memo shortly before the report’s release and obtained by the House panel, Dowling offered to help “rewrite” it.
• Cuomo’s executive chamber decided to remove “out-of-facility” fatalities — such as nursing home residents who died from COVID after falling ill and being transferred to hospitals — from the July report, thus dramatically reducing the total death toll.

The panel also concluded that “Mr. Andrew Cuomo Likely Gave False Statements to the Select Subcommittee in Violation of 18 U.S.C” — a federal crime that if proven could result in a sentence of five years in prison.

The committee in October said it had referred Cuomo’s “criminally false statements” to the US Department of Justice for potential prosecution.

Cuomo’s rep, Azzopardi, claimed the House was out to get “perceived political enemies.”

“From the very beginning this has been an abuse of power and a waste of taxpayer money aimed at punishing perceived political enemies – like Dr. [Anthony] Fauci [then Director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases], Governor Cuomo and ‘the deep state’ – that does nothing to make us more prepared for the next pandemic,” he said.

He claimed federal data showed that New York ranked 39th in terms of per capita nursing home deaths in 2020.

“The DOJ -three times – the Manhattan DA and others looked at the nursing home issue and found no wrongdoing, while the meritless civil lawsuit launched by the very same people who have been working arm and arm with this committee was tossed out of court,” Azzopardi added.

Families of loved ones who were nursing home residents and died from COVID said Cuomo was finally being held to account.

“Cuomo has been lying about following the Trump CDC guidelines for years,” said Peter Arbeeny, whose father, Norman, died from the virus after being released from a Brooklyn nursing home.

“If the Cuomo administration would have followed the Trump [administration] CDC guidelines and also used the the USS Comfort ship and Javits Center [for more patients], thousands of lives would have been saved.”