DiNapoli Hits the Nail on the Head with Olson Group COVID Report

Earlier this summer, the Olson Group, a Virginia-based consulting firm, released their long-awaited autopsy on New York’s – namely then-Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) – response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Our editorial from the June 20 edition of The Messenger was aptly titled “COVID Report Shows What We Already Knew.” Briefly, we didn’t think the Olson Group’s findings were too off base from what was already surmised, nor did we think that Governor Cuomo would somehow be redeemed from a botched, micro-managed response that garnered near-universal criticism.

However, the Olson Group’s report left much to be desired, with many detractors claiming that the report commissioned two years ago by Governor Kathy Hochul (D) spent taxpayer money to essentially have its contents be the intellectual property of the State. Hochul not only kicked the report past the 2022 gubernatorial election, which she almost lost in a stunning upset to then-Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), and then authorized the release of the report the very day after Albany’s legislation session ended this year.

To add one final squeeze of lemon juice over the paper cut, Hochul forced the Olson Group into a non-disclosure agreement, effectively placing a gag order on them discussing their findings with the media.

New York now finds itself in a rare situation of sage wisdom from a statewide elected official: Messenger-endorsed Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (D). Serving as the State’s chief numbers guy since 2007, DiNapoli has been known to buck his party in favor of common sense and call balls and strikes in light of those who wish to indulge in excess. A neutral and badly-needed voice of objectivity, DiNapoli hits the nail on the head with the Olson Group’s report. His solid take can be read next door on Page 7.

DiNapoli calls for an independent group to audit the COVID response, one devoid of commissions from the State (ie. the taxpayers). A group who is not on the payroll of New York State, and subsequently at the whim of the executive branch’s stonewalling, would be a welcome turning point in a dark, dark road on which New York has traveled since March 2020.

Luckily, no one seems to have any discernible level of confidence in the report’s findings, although it does establish tenets of leadership, or lack thereof, that came as a surprise to no one who didn’t quarantine themselves intellectually during the pandemic.

The fact that Governor Cuomo is out doing book signings and likely still playing puppetmaster in New York politics instead of being regularly subpoenaed and facing legal ramifications for his unprecedented actions during the pandemic is nothing short of the New York State of mind. Perhaps the biggest misstep during his handling of the pandemic was requiring nursing homes to admit COVID-positive or symptom-displaying patients, no exceptions.

The Olson Group report does, to its credit, outline that Cuomo’s micro-management did much more harm than good, create food shortages, stymie vaccine and medical apparatus rollout, and needlessly increase the number of fatalities as New York’s health care workers did not have the physical nor emotional capacity to handle.

However, DiNapoli criticizes the report’s findings based on incomplete data, in which he says the Olson Group should have had access to the State Department’s death numbers. Nursing home deaths appear to have been deliberately undercounted during the most severe period of the pandemic, as nursing home facilities were not required to report COVID deaths until May 24, 2020.

DiNapoli says that the report relies on misinterpreted and misreported data and that New Yorkers deserve a “thorough and accurate” pandemic response assessment.

We couldn’t agree more and we couldn’t thank DiNapoli enough for his ability to call out the bureaucrats running this state when he gets the chance.