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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Andrew Cuomo agrees to testify to Congress on Covid-19 nursing home | |
advisory | |
By Jake Tapper and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN | |
Updated: | |
4:58 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, after being subpoenaed last month, | |
has agreed to testify to Congress about his y from the early days of | |
the Covid-19 pandemic, Rep. Brad Wenstrup told CNN’s Jake Tapper on | |
Friday. | |
“Governor Cuomo will be appearing before our select Subcommittee on | |
the Pandemic on June 11,” Wenstrup, the Ohio Republican who chairs | |
the panel, said on “The Lead.” “This will be a transcribed | |
interview at 10 a.m.” | |
Wenstrup said that lawmakers want to ask the former Democratic governor | |
about the March 2020 advisory, which barred nursing homes from | |
rejecting patients solely on the basis of a Covid-19 diagnosis. | |
“I’m trying to learn why he would do something like this,” | |
Wenstrup said. “As a doctor who has treated infections, it goes | |
against all medical common sense to take someone who was highly | |
contagious and put them amongst the most vulnerable.” | |
In a to Cuomo sent along with the subpoena, Wenstrup alleged that | |
the “misguided decision effectively admitted thousands of COVID-19 | |
positive patients into nursing homes, causing predictable but deadly | |
consequences for New York’s most vulnerable.” | |
Wenstrup said Friday that the committee started reaching out to Cuomo | |
roughly nine months ago, and the panel was “ignored on many of our | |
requests, there were delays.” | |
When reached for comment, Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, | |
told CNN, “There’s no news here, we agreed to do this months | |
ago.” In response, the committee said that Cuomo did not actually | |
confirm a date for the interview until two days ago. | |
Cuomo has insisted that advisory from the Centers for Medicare and | |
Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.� | |
However, his upcoming appearance before lawmakers is a sign of� | |
continuing scrutiny over his handling of long-term care facilities | |
during the pandemic. | |
The voluntary agreement means that Cuomo will participate with a | |
transcribed interview rather than a deposition. Both formats require | |
participants to tell the truth to Congress. | |
A by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, found | |
that the New York State Department of Health undercounted Covid-19 | |
deaths among residents of nursing homes by approximately 50%, | |
essentially by leaving out deaths of residents who had been transferred | |
to hospitals. A by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli concluded that | |
Cuomo’s health department failed to report roughly 4,100 deaths | |
between April 2020 and February 2021. | |
When pressed by Tapper if there was actual evidence of an alleged cover | |
up, Wenstrup said, “Well, he’s going to have the opportunity to | |
deny that again and take a look at what some of the other people are | |
saying actually took place and whether it was intentional to play those | |
numbers down or whether it was just miscounting.” | |
In 2021, CNN’s KFile found that lags in nursing home patient and | |
death data and defended his administration from allegations of | |
wrongdoing, according to a review of his daily press conferences from | |
spring 2020 in which nursing homes were mentioned. | |
Wenstrup told Tapper on Friday that the panel will also hear from | |
Cuomo’s former secretary Melissa DeRosa and former commissioner of | |
the New York State Department of Health Dr. Howard Zucker. After the | |
interview aired, Nelson A. Boxer, an attorney for Zucker, confirmed to | |
CNN that Zucker had sat for a voluntary, transcribed interview with the | |
committee’s counsel in December 2023 and has not been contacted for | |
additional discussion. | |
Cuomo was first elected governor in 2010 and served nearly three full | |
terms before he following the release of by James’ office he | |
had sexually harassed 11 women. Cuomo has denied the allegations. | |
This story has been updated with additional developments. | |
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