As Cuomo Sought $4 Million Book Deal, Aides Hid Damaging Death Toll
Gov. Andrew Cuomo boasted, “I am not a superhero,” in early versions of his book, drafted as his aides scrubbed a politically damaging Health Department report.
ALBANY, N.Y. As the coronavirus subsided in New York last year, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had begun pitching a book proposal that would center on his image as a hero of the pandemic. But by early last summer, both his book and image had hit a critical juncture.
Mr. Cuomo leaned on his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, for assistance.
She attended video meetings with publishers, and helped him edit early drafts of the book. But there was also another, more pressing edit underway at the same time.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the negotiations, which resulted in a $4 million deal for a book on the Cuomo administration’s response to the pandemic, occurred at the same time aides worked to make edits on an impending Health Department report.
The newspaper, citing sources with knowledge of the book bidding process and an examination of the timeline of talks, reported an overlap between the negotiations for Cuomo s book and efforts to intervene in the Health Department report.
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Melissa DeRosa, one of Cuomo’s top aides involved in the effort to withhold the true coronavirus death toll in nursing homes, also helped Cuomo with his book’s development by attending meetings with publishers and editing drafts of the book, according to the Times.
Patient readers, this is a bit short. More soon. –lambert
Bird Song of the Day
Another migratory bird from the Birds of the Atlantic Flyway. From the Note: “See 1:27 for a masterful run.”
#COVID19
At reader request, I’ve added this daily chart from 91-DIVOC. The data is the Johns Hopkins CSSE data. Here is the site.
I feel I’m engaging in a macabre form of tape-watching.
Early in February, I said a simple way to compare Biden’s performance to Trump’s on vaccination would be to compare the curves. If Biden accelerated vaccine administration, the rate of vaccination post-Inaugural would kink upward, as the policies of a more effective administration took hold. They have not. The fragmented, Federalized, and profit-driven lumbering monstrosity that we laughingly call our “health care” “system” has not responded to “energy in the executive,” but has continued on its inertial path.
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