ALBANY — Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s need for control hampered health officials’ COVID response, according to a former top state Health Department infectious disease expert.
The Cuomo administration actively barred state health officials from collaborating with their local counterparts in the city during the height of the pandemic and forced nearly all decisions to be routed through the executive chamber, Dr. Elizabeth Dufort, the former medical director of the state health department’s office of epidemiology told investigators probing sexual harassment allegations against Cuomo.
“We were not allowed to collaborate with our peers in the local health departments and New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene which is a critical component in an outbreak response to collaborate with different facets of public health,” Dufort, identified as State Employee #2, said.
The claims were buried in reams of testimony released earlier this week by Attorney General Letitia James’ office, which oversaw the independent investigation into Cuomo’s behavior.
She recounted former superintendent of the state Department of Financial Services Linda Lacewell berating a health official over COVID testing and webinars with local health departments being prohibited.
“I was upset that we couldn’t work with New York City,” Dufort said. “And it was upsetting to me that it was just an inappropriate processes and inappropriate for public health.”
The edicts from on high came as Cuomo publicly clashed with Mayor de Blasio over mask mandates and shutdowns, their longstanding feud seemingly exacerbated by the pandemic.
Dufort said that the Cuomo administration’s micro-managing often delayed important information from reaching local health departments and providers.
“These were things that had to go through approval and would either not be approved or it would take so many months it was quite out of date and irrelevant by the time the approval was received,” she said.
Dufort, who left her job with the state last year, also noted that dozens of top-level health officials had left during the course of the pandemic amid concerns about how the Cuomo administration handled data regarding nursing home deaths and other matters.
She said she knew of at least 28 “highly experienced individuals” who had exited.
“Although there has been maybe one or two more since then,” she said. “So it might be in that range.”
Dufort is among 11 women whose claims of misconduct against Cuomo were initially laid out in a bombshell report released by James’ office in August, which led to the disgraced governor’s resignation.
In her testimony, Dufort describes how she was enlisted to administer a COVID-19 nasal swab test during a televised press conference last May.
“Nice to see you, doctor. You make that gown look good,” Cuomo told her as the cameras rolled.
Prior to the presser, Dufort told the then-governor that she would be “gentle but accurate” during the test.
“Gentle but accurate, I’ve heard that before,” Cuomo allegedly responded, making Dufort uncomfortable because she felt the joke was of an “implied sexual nature.”
“I interpreted it as something of an inappropriate comment versus a bad joke versus a comment that had sexual undertones and probably wouldn’t be said to a male physician, some sort of combination of those things,” she said, detailing how she told her husband and others about the cringe-worthy comments at the time.
Cuomo is currently facing a misdemeanor forcible-touching charges filed in Albany after a former aide accused him of groping her at the Executive Mansion last year. Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing.
