Cuomo used damaging big-foot tactics, secrecy in dealing with NYC officials battling COVID: scathing study

Mayoral candidate and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo used heavy-handed tactics and secretiveness with Big Apple officials as the city struggled to contain the deadly COVID pandemic, a scathing new study says.

Ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio also gets dinged in the report, which was issued by several city agencies that analyzed New York City’s handling of the health crisis — and which specifically criticized the toxic relationship between him and Cuomo.

“Coordination challenges between Governor Cuomo’s and Mayor de Blasio’s administrations impeded City-State collaboration and contributed to duplicative work, inconsistent recommendations, and a loss of trust from New Yorkers,” says the COVID-19 Response Review Report covering January 2020 to July 2022 and obtained by The Post.

The analysis was prepared by city agencies — notably the Health Department, Office of Emergency Management and Health+Hospitals — serving under Cuomo’s now-mayoral foe, Hizzoner Eric Adams.

Cuomo was accused in the report of big-footing City Hall and unnecessarily micro-managing the city’s response.

“The Cuomo administration was reluctant to share data with the City and often refused to give advance warning of policy changes and new directives,” the study said.

For example, in March 2020, the state restricted the city’s access to its Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS), which tracks hospital capacity across New York state, though the city historically had regular access.

“This limited the City’s insight into hospital impacts and hindered its ability to support the NYC healthcare system,” the report said.

Don Weiss, the former longtime “surveillance director” for the city Health Department, said state Health Department officials he worked with for years told him they weren’t supposed to share information.

“It was because of the pissing contest between Cuomo and de Blasio. It was ludicrous,” he said.

A former state official said Cuomo’s “strong dislike” of de Blasio certainly was an issue but that officials in Albany and City Hall still found “creative ways” to quietly work together despite the chill between the two power brokers.

State officials were also “slow to release critical pandemic-related guidance,” the report said — resulting in the city either releasing its own guidance or policy which would later be superseded by the state.

The confusion “significantly impacted healthcare operations early in the pandemic,” the report said. 

The disharmony spilled over into the crucial COVID-19 vaccine distribution period, the findings said.

The city obtained its COVID-19 vaccine supply directly from the federal Centers for Disease Control, as it had other vaccines.

But unlike previous vaccine campaigns, state approval was required for the city’s vaccine allocation and the Big Apple’s distribution plan each week, which “created an additional bureaucratic layer,” the report said.

A former state official who requested anonymity said Albany “micro-managed” the city’s vaccination program. 

The study also pointed to “state and city guidance contradictions” as creating serious issues.

De Blasio publicly announced plans to close schools and non-essential businesses because of a COVID-19 surge in parts of Brooklyn and Queens in October 2020.

But Cuomo, who had the authority to impose such measures, rejected the mayor’s plan and announced his own geographical areas and closures for the city to enforce, the report said.

Bronx state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, chairman of the New York Senate’s Health Committee, said Cuomo’s “big-footing everybody” was one of the reasons he voted against legislation giving the governor emergency powers without reporting back to the legislature.

“He’s an abusive bully,” said Rivera, a Democrat along with Cuomo and Adams.

Cuomo defended his oversight of the pandemic in the city as governor.

“Feeble attempts to rewrite history now — five years later — in the midst of a political campaign are as ineffective as they are disingenuous,” the former governor’s spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, told The Post. “New Yorkers know what happened because they were there with us every step of the way.

“Decisions were made and communicated in real time as the facts on the ground kept changing and lines of communication with local governments, including the city, were open to the largest extent practical.”

The Cuomo rep said a strong state presence was needed to aid the city.

“What’s forgotten here is that the entire reason a uniform hospital system was set up in the first place was because Elmhurst, a city-run hospital, nearly collapsed and there was no plan from the city to redirect patients,” Azzopardi said.

“The city needed a manager then, and it does now. This was a once-in-a century pandemic and one would think any objective retrospective would be devoid of politics or political campaigns.”

But Gustavo also claimed Cuomo blocked vaccine clinics from opening his district to spite him, potentially triggering more deaths from COVID-19.

The Cuomo campaign fired back with a list of five vaccination sites in the northwest Bronx in 2021.

“Gustavo is a liar. The facts are the facts,” Azzopardi said.

“He’s trying to block and tackle for his [Democratic Socialists of America] buddies.” 

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Stephen Collopy

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