Mayoral candidate and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo used heavy-handed techniques and secretiveness with Massive Apple officers as town struggled to comprise the lethal COVID pandemic, a scathing new research says.
Ex-Mayor Invoice de Blasio additionally will get dinged within the report, which was issued by a number of metropolis businesses that analyzed New York Metropolis’s dealing with of the well being disaster — and which particularly criticized the poisonous relationship between him and Cuomo.
“Coordination challenges between Governor Cuomo’s and Mayor de Blasio’s administrations impeded City-State collaboration and contributed to duplicative work, inconsistent recommendations, and a loss of trust from New Yorkers,” says the COVID-19 Response Overview Report protecting January 2020 to July 2022 and obtained by The Submit.
The evaluation was ready by metropolis businesses — notably the Well being Division, Workplace of Emergency Administration and Well being+Hospitals — serving underneath Cuomo’s now-mayoral foe, Hizzoner Eric Adams.
Cuomo was accused within the report of big-footing Metropolis Corridor and unnecessarily micro-managing town’s response.
“The Cuomo administration was reluctant to share data with the City and often refused to give advance warning of policy changes and new directives,” the research stated.
For instance, in March 2020, the state restricted town’s entry to its Well being Emergency Response Information System (HERDS), which tracks hospital capability throughout New York state, although town traditionally had common entry.
“This limited the City’s insight into hospital impacts and hindered its ability to support the NYC healthcare system,” the report stated.
Don Weiss, the previous longtime “surveillance director” for town Well being Division, stated state Well being Division officers he labored with for years instructed him they weren’t alleged to share data.
“It was because of the pissing contest between Cuomo and de Blasio. It was ludicrous,” he stated.
A former state official stated Cuomo’s “strong dislike” of de Blasio actually was a problem however that officers in Albany and Metropolis Corridor nonetheless discovered “creative ways” to quietly work collectively regardless of the chilliness between the 2 energy brokers.
State officers had been additionally “slow to release critical pandemic-related guidance,” the report stated — ensuing within the metropolis both releasing its personal steerage or coverage which might later be outmoded by the state.
The confusion “significantly impacted healthcare operations early in the pandemic,” the report stated.
The disharmony spilled over into the essential COVID-19 vaccine distribution interval, the findings stated.
Town obtained its COVID-19 vaccine provide instantly from the federal Facilities for Illness Management, because it had different vaccines.
However not like earlier vaccine campaigns, state approval was required for town’s vaccine allocation and the Massive Apple’s distribution plan every week, which “created an additional bureaucratic layer,” the report stated.
A former state official who requested anonymity stated Albany “micro-managed” town’s vaccination program.
The research additionally pointed to “state and city guidance contradictions” as creating severe points.
De Blasio publicly introduced plans to shut faculties and non-essential companies due to a COVID-19 surge in components of Brooklyn and Queens in October 2020.
However Cuomo, who had the authority to impose such measures, rejected the mayor’s plan and introduced his personal geographical areas and closures for town to implement, the report stated.
Bronx state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, chairman of the New York Senate’s Well being Committee, stated Cuomo’s “big-footing everybody” was one of many causes he voted in opposition to laws giving the governor emergency powers with out reporting again to the legislature.
“He’s an abusive bully,” stated Rivera, a Democrat together with Cuomo and Adams.
Cuomo defended his oversight of the pandemic within the metropolis as governor.
“Feeble attempts to rewrite history now — five years later — in the midst of a political campaign are as ineffective as they are disingenuous,” the previous governor’s spokesman, Wealthy Azzopardi, instructed The Submit. “New Yorkers know what occurred as a result of they had been there with us each step of the best way.
“Decisions were made and communicated in real time as the facts on the ground kept changing and lines of communication with local governments, including the city, were open to the largest extent practical.”
The Cuomo rep stated a powerful state presence was wanted to help town.
“What’s forgotten here is that the entire reason a uniform hospital system was set up in the first place was because Elmhurst, a city-run hospital, nearly collapsed and there was no plan from the city to redirect patients,” Azzopardi stated.
“The city needed a manager then, and it does now. This was a once-in-a century pandemic and one would think any objective retrospective would be devoid of politics or political campaigns.”
However Gustavo additionally claimed Cuomo blocked vaccine clinics from opening his district to spite him, doubtlessly triggering extra deaths from COVID-19.
The Cuomo marketing campaign fired again with an inventory of 5 vaccination websites within the northwest Bronx in 2021.
“Gustavo is a liar. The facts are the facts,” Azzopardi stated.
“He’s trying to block and tackle for his [Democratic Socialists of America] buddies.”
