N.Y. health czar Zucker defends Cuomo’s handling of nursing home COVID deaths during budget hearing

ALBANY — Amid a swirling controversy surrounding nursing home COVID deaths, state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker defended the Cuomo administration’s pandemic policies Thursday during hours-long testimony before lawmakers.

Zucker staunchly stood by the state’s handling of elder care facilities amid the crisis and deflected questions about an ongoing federal probe into the matter as he made a virtual appearance at a long-awaited budget hearing.

“Yes, there were deaths. Too many,” Zucker admitted to legislators. “And yes, there have been questions.”

The embattled health czar repeatedly backed a controversial directive ordering nursing homes to readmit COVID-positive residents treated at hospitals during the height of the pandemic, echoing administration arguments that the spread came from unsuspecting asymptomatic staffers.

“This is what’s happening: people are not listening to the science. The fact of the matter is, first of all, it was in the facilities. It came in from the community. It was already there,” he said.

Cuomo and Zucker have faced growing criticism over the directive and the state’s refusal to release a full tally of nursing home deaths until last month, following a report from Attorney General James alleging the public number was undercounted by as much as 50%.

Mid-pandemic, the state stopped including long-term care facility residents who died in hospitals in the nursing home count.

Zucker, originally slated to testify three weeks ago, has faced calls to resign as the scandal snowballed with top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa telling lawmakers the data was withheld from the public because the administration “froze” out of fear that the information was “going to be used against us” by the Trump administration.

Cuomo has since said that officials had simply prioritized the Department of Justice request. Critics have alleged the administration orchestrated a “coverup,” but Zucker refused to say who made the call to keep the number, which swelled from under 9,000 to more than 13,000, under wraps.

“There is a process here, and I am sure you respect the process,” he said Thursday. “The investigation is ongoing and I am not going to be disrespectful of a process that involves any kind of federal inquiry.”

Lawmakers were skeptical of his response, with legislators from both sides of the aisle questioning his comments and calling for more transparency.

In recent weeks, legislators have considered rescinding Cuomo’s emergency executive authority and some have called for oversight hearings and even impeachment.

“It is very clear that this administration, whether it’s you sir, or anybody else, the governor or anybody speaking on his behalf will apparently never acknowledge that you have done anything wrong,” Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx) said.

In response to questions from Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx), Zucker also stood by a provision tucked into last year’s budget that granted legal immunity to health care facilities and hospitals during the pandemic.

Prior to the grilling, Cuomo’s office released a lengthy statement from Steven Cohen, former secretary to the governor, echoing several lines of defense already employed by administration officials to counter accusations of wrongdoing.

On a call with reporters, Cohen said any DOJ inquiry should be taken seriously, but called the request for information last year a “politicized” move made on behalf of former President Trump.

“Much of this particular public debate has also been influenced, if not created, by the other crisis through which we suffered, that is, the Trump presidency,” he said.

Cohen also brushed off the idea that there has been any hint of a coverup and said DeRosa’s comments were taken out of context.

“What Ms. DeRosa was saying in that conversation is patently clear to anybody who bothers to look at the transcript,” he said. “There is a word used which was ‘froze.’ It has now been taken completely out of context, but in context it is clear that what Ms. DeRosa is saying is not as some have suggested: a mission of a coverup or some kind of obstruction of justice.

“There was no coverup,” he added.

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