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Andrew Cuomo, once America’s most beloved governor, is fighting for his political life. At least six women have accused him of sexual harassment, and the FBI is probing how his administration tallied nursing home deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the popular pandemic narrative of Cuomo as a successful responder to a crisis that has been lately led astray is not fully accurate. New York state has America’s second-highest coronavirus death toll nearly 50,000 people have died and death rate. And choices made a year ago by Cuomo and his administration fueled the carnage in the state.
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A Monday report from The New York Times describing a growing rift between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state public health officials is the latest evidence of the governor’s close relationship with the state’s health care industry and hospitals. According to the article, Cuomo relied more heavily on private hospital executives than on state officials, such as Michael Dowling, CEO of Northwell Health, in making plans for COVID-19 vaccine distribution. This, the Times reports, contributed to at least nine top health officials resigning, retiring or otherwise leaving the state Department of Health in recent months.
This is not the first time that Cuomo has listened to or relied on the politically connected health care industry leaders. When Cuomo announced his 14-person COVID-19 vaccine task force in September, it did not include a single epidemiologist and few public health experts. The task force did, however, include several influential leaders in the hospital industry, includi
9 top New York health officials resign as Gov Andrew Cuomo scorns COVID-19 advice from experts sun-sentinel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sun-sentinel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
9 Top New York Health Officials Have Quit as Cuomo Scorns Expertise
J. David Goodman, Joseph Goldstein and Jesse McKinley, New York Times
Feb. 1, 2021
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The deputy commissioner for public health at the New York state Health Department resigned in late summer. Soon after, the director of its bureau of communicable disease control also stepped down. So did the medical director for epidemiology. Last month, the state epidemiologist said she, too, would be leaving.
The drumbeat of high-level departures in the middle of the pandemic came as morale plunged in the Health Department and senior health officials expressed alarm to one another over being sidelined and treated disrespectfully, according to five people with direct experience inside the department.