Cuomo sexual harassment scandal may be overshadowing NY's nursing home deaths, some critics worry

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of nursing home deaths at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic may be getting overshadowed by his growing list of sexual harassment accusers, some critics of the Democrat say.

State officials now estimate that more than 15,000 residents of New York's nursing homes and long-term-care facilities may have died of the coronavirus -- a much larger number than the 6,400 estimate state officials previously reported, according to a story published Thursday night by The Wall Street Journal. The Cuomo administration later claimed that some deaths were not included in its count because some of the information could not be "adequately verified," adding that the discrepancy did not affect the administration's contention that a March 25 state advisory regarding nursing home patients "was not a driver of nursing home deaths," as some critics had suspected. "A decision was made to use the data set that was reported by the place of death with firsthand knowledge of the circumstances, which gave a higher degree of comfort in its accuracy," Beth Garvey, special counsel to Cuomo, explained.