While New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo was once heralded in the media as a hero for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to key indicators, his state might have fared worse than any other in the country.
The report: New York ranked near the bottom in both loss of jobs and excess deaths during the pandemic, a new analysis conducted by Hamilton Place Strategies has revealed.
- 3,300: The number of excess deaths per million in the Empire State.
- 55,000: The number of jobs lost per million in New York – only Hawaii’s figures were worse.
An explanation? According to Hamilton Place Strategies researchers, states “with major hospitality and tourism sectors were hit hard in terms of job loss.”
- Meanwhile, “states that were in the first wave of infections—when the healthcare system was still learning how to treat COVID-19—fared comparatively worse on their death tolls.”
- New York fell into both categories.
Cuomo’s rise and fall: Cuomo became a media darling for his leadership in the early stages of the pandemic, but the shine appears to have worn off recently amid a spate of scandals.
- The New York governor stands accused of conducting a coverup, following an admission in February by one of his top aides that the governor’s office did not fully report nursing home casualty data.
- Meanwhile, seven women have now accused him of sexual impropriety.
- New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose January report found that nursing home coronavirus deaths were as much as 50% higher than reported, has opened an independent inquiry into the harassment claims.
