Governor Cuomo resigning in disgrace does not relieve his administration of responsibility for its deadly performance during the COVID pandemic, and furious legislators are directing their ire at a remaining vestige of his regime, Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker.
“Throughout the pandemic, the Cuomo Administration and Commissioner Zucker repeatedly misled the public about the true number of COVID-19 related deaths in the State of New York,” said Senator Alexis Weik. “First, the Attorney General found that the Cuomo Administration undercounted the number of deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50%. Now, Governor Hochul has indicated that the Cuomo Administration and Commissioner Zucker failed to disclose an additional 12,000 deaths related to COVID-19.”
Also beating the drum for accountability is Assemblyman Joe DeStefano, who has been critical of the disgraced governor for misleading federal investigators and the public just as he was accepting an Emmy Award and inking a $5.1 million book deal to crow about his COVID performance. “Zucker also must go,” DeStefano said, “In order to recover from the mistakes of the past and make sure we are better prepared for the future, we need to get rid of the people who made so many mistakes and then tried to cover them up.”
In one of her first official acts Governor Kathy Hochul publicly amended the state’s COVID-19 death count and acknowledged that 12,000 more individuals died as a result of the virus than Cuomo and Zucker had admitted. According to the Empire Center, using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID death toll numbers as recently adjusted by Gov. Hochul, New York state’s mortality rate is once again the highest in the nation. Based on death certificate data submitted to the CDC, nearly 55,400 New Yorkers have died of the coronavirus, painting a much grimmer picture than the one described by Cuomo and his administration. The ex-governor’s decision to force nursing homes to take in COVID patients is widely seen as a reason for the state’s high mortality rate.
“While Gov. Hochul’s decision to release the new figures is both symbolically and practically important, she must go one step further to right the wrongs of the previous administration,” stated Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay. “Zucker, who was complicit in the prolonged cover-up of New York’s failed pandemic response, must be removed from his position immediately. If we are on the cusp of another surge due to the Delta variant, why should we put our faith in Commissioner Zucker?” Barclay asked.“When New Yorkers needed the truth, the Cuomo Administration chose to serve themselves before serving the public interest,” DeStefano continued. “The severity of the pandemic was downplayed, and people were forced to make decisions based on incorrect and misleading information rooted in the lies of an administration desperate to show the world a picture of New York that did not exist. I call on Gov. Hochul to do what is necessary to restore our faith in those tasked with ensuring the safety and well-being of 20 million New Yorkers.”
“New Yorkers must be able to trust their public health officials,” Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio concluded. “As businesses start to get back on track and our children return to school, credibility and integrity are especially important from the Department of Health. We need to move on from Dr. Zucker and the Cuomo appointees if we are to fully recover.”
