Cuomo’s Covid-19 Book Publisher Stops Promoting, Amid Nursing Home Probe

By: Benyamin Davidsons

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s book, released in October 2020, has hit a bump.

“American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic,” was the book written by Gov. Cuomo, in which he lauds his own charge in the fight against COVID-19, as New York became the epicenter of the pandemic. As reported by the NY Post, now, the books publisher has paused promotion of the book, amid the federal probe into the state’s handling of the coronavirus in nursing homes. Crown Publishing Group has also said that it has “no plans” of reprinting or reissuing the book. “Pending the ongoing investigation, we have paused active support of ‘American Crisis’ and have no plans to reprint or reissue in paperback,” the company’s publisher Gillian Blake told The New York Times. The moves by the publisher are a result of “the ongoing investigation into N.Y.S. reporting of Covid-related fatalities in nursing homes,” Blake said in a statement. Gov. Cuomo’s 320-page book had become a New York Times Bestseller.

Gov. Cuomo and his administration have faced allegations of purposefully withholding the toll of nursing home residents who died from the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of January, NY Attorney General Letitia James released a report, which accused the administration of understating the death toll by close to 50 percent. Following a Supreme Judge court order and intense pressure, and close to eight months later, Cuomo’s team finally released the full data.

It revealed that the number of deaths including those who had to be transferred from nursing homes to hospitals stood at 12,743, almost 4,000 more residents than originally stated in its July report. Then came the bombshell admission from Cuomo top aide, Melissa DeRosa, to Democratic leaders, in which she said that the administration purposely withheld the true death toll out of fear that they would “be used against us” by federal prosecutors. Since then, the Eastern District of New York opened an investigation into the Cuomo’s administration’s handling of nursing homes amid the pandemic.

The governor is now also embroiled in another probe, in which several women have accused him of sexual misconduct, or unwanted advances. To top it off, some 20 people who worked with the governor since the 1990s allege that he fostered a “hostile” and “toxic” workplace, as per the Washington Post.

Gov. Cuomo did not immediately return the Times’ request for comment about the book.