{"id":114779,"date":"2021-02-01T09:36:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T14:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=114779"},"modified":"2021-02-01T09:57:08","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T14:57:08","slug":"ny-gov-cuomo-shunned-experts-embraced-lobbyists-drove-top-health-officials-to-quit-over-pandemic-response-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ny-gov-cuomo-shunned-experts-embraced-lobbyists-drove-top-health-officials-to-quit-over-pandemic-response-report\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Gov. Cuomo Shunned Experts, Embraced Lobbyists, Drove Top Health Officials To Quit Over Pandemic Response: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fny-gov-cuomo-shunned-experts-embraced-lobbyists-drove-top-health-officials-to-quit-over-pandemic-response-report%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=114779&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>At least nine top New York health officials have left their posts since March of last year over Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s handling of the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Health officials frustrated at Cuomo\u2019s response to the pandemic have resigned or changed jobs as morale among public health workers has dropped. The governor ignored advice from his public health experts while using them as a foil during a recent press conference while answering questions on the pandemic, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/01\/nyregion\/cuomo-health-department-officials-quit.html\">The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I say \u2018experts\u2019 in air quotes, it sounds like I\u2019m saying I don\u2019t really trust the experts,\u201d Cuomo said Friday, referring to all government experts. \u201cBecause I don\u2019t. Because I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>State health officials have grown increasingly irritated at Cuomo\u2019s approach to the pandemic, claiming that the governor has issued top-down orders to combat the coronavirus without first notifying health department staff. Typically, he has announced an order then directed health officials to adapt to it with no prior warning.<\/p>\n<p>One of the latest incidents occurred in Cuomo\u2019s shaping of the state\u2019s vaccine distribution plan. The governor scrapped a plan that health officials at all levels of state government had been working on in some fashion for about two decades. As the Times reported:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>In the fall, Mr. Cuomo shelved vaccine distribution plans that top state health officials had been drawing up, one person with knowledge of the decision said. The plans had relied in part on years of preparations at the local level \u2014 an outgrowth of bioterrorism fears following Sept. 11 \u2014 and on experience dispensing vaccine through county health departments during the H1N1 pandemic in 2009.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As a result, local officials across the state complained that their efforts to vaccinate were undercut by the Cuomo plan.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWait a minute, why are we not doing this?\u201d Anthony J. Picente Jr., a Republican who is county executive in upstate Oneida County, said he remembered thinking.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Instead of the leaving vaccination plans to be run by local officials, Cuomo instead \u201cspoke with hospital executives, outside consultants and a top hospital lobbyist in closed-door meetings,\u201d according to the Times. Hospitals were put in charge of vaccinating their own employees as well as area residents. The approach, critics say, resulted in bottlenecks and people placed in charge of a vaccination program they were not trained to handle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe governor\u2019s approach in the beginning seemed to go against the grain in terms of what the philosophy was about how to do this,\u201d former New York City Health Department Deputy Commissioner Dr. Isaac Weisfuse said. \u201cIt did seem to negate 15 to 20 years of work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cuomo responded to allegations of mishandling the pandemic by asserting that he is fighting for New Yorkers. \u201cIf Times reporters think I push hospitals too hard and local governments too hard, I say I\u2019m a fighter for the people of New York and I believe I\u2019m saving lives,\u201d he told the Times.<\/p>\n<p>For months, Cuomo has been accused of mishandling he pandemic early on by forcing New York nursing homes to accept COVID-19-positive patients before they tested negative for the disease. The accusations have gained more attention recently, and New York\u2019s top prosecutor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/nursing-home-deaths-in-new-york-were-massively-undercounted-new-york-ag-finds\">Letitia James<\/a>, has determined that Cuomo\u2019s administration may have attempted to cover up mistakes by undercounting the number of elderly who died in nursing homes from the coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>A report issued last week by James\u2019s office stated: \u201cCOVID-19 resident deaths associated with nursing homes in New York state appear to be undercounted by DOH by approximately 50 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cuomo deflected questions over his handling of the pandemic and nursing homes on Friday, blaming the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I would say is everyone did the best they could. When I say the State Department of Health, as the report said, the State Department of Health followed federal guidance. So if you think there was a mistake, then go talk to the federal government,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/governor-cuomo-on-the-issue-of-where-coronavirus-patients-died-who-cares-they-died\">Cuomo<\/a> said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about pointing fingers of blame. It\u2019s that this became a political football, right? Look, whether a person died in the hospital or died in a nursing home, it\u2019s, the people died. People died.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least nine top New York health officials have left their posts since March of last year over Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s handling of the pandemic. Health officials frustrated at &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1892358,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3714,4530,4524,4521,4527,4518],"class_list":["post-114779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cuomo","tag-drove","tag-embraced","tag-experts","tag-lobbyists","tag-shunned"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1892358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}