Elizabeth Dufort, a former medical director for the Division of Epidemiology who was recognized as “State Entity Worker #2” in one of many transcripts launched by the legal professional basic’s workplace, instructed investigators that working situations had gotten so dangerous on the Division of Well being that some workers had requested the Public Workers Federation, one of many state’s largest unions, if they’d any authorized recourse when it got here to issues like unpaid additional time. (They have been reportedly suggested that it was “not unlawful throughout a public well being emergency.”) The union didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Regardless of their experience and lengthy hours, a number of former staffers stated, choices that ought to have come from DOH specialists — similar to the place to ship private protecting gear — have been usually routed via Cuomo’s internal circle.
For instance, the division would conduct every day surveys of nursing houses and different services to see what PPE was wanted and assemble packages to be despatched from the state’s warehouse. At one level, Larry Schwartz — a longtime Cuomo ally and former secretary to the governor who was, on the time, a C-suite government at airport vendor OTG — needed to log off on these requests and at occasions questioned the necessity for them, the previous staffer stated. Schwartz and different former aides had returned in the course of the pandemic to work in a “volunteer capability.”
That system of direct approval was initially meant to override bureaucratic delays and handle stock in the course of the early days of the pandemic, stated former Cuomo administration officers. However it developed to strengthen a picture of tightly concentrated energy held solely by the people Cuomo trusted.
“He would push again and say, ‘How correct do you assume that is? … Do you assume they’re attempting to not purchase that themselves, attempting to get us to produce it?’ I keep in mind he requested that query a few occasions, and I used to be like, ‘Pay attention, Larry, they want it,’” the previous Division of Well being staffer stated. “The warehouse couldn’t distribute the stuff till they’d [governor’s office] log off.”
Two former administration officers defended the roles Cuomo’s workplace workers and internal circle performed within the pandemic response, saying that they have been by no means meant to exchange public well being specialists, however slightly to work as liaisons, organizers and managers on behalf of the governor. They have been recurrently conversing with state and native well being officers when Cuomo was not, they stated. The inquiries about private protecting gear have been made to correctly gauge provide and demand, to not maintain up any deliveries, they stated.
In her interview with the legal professional basic’s workplace, Dufort described “a poisonous work surroundings” by which state Well being Division workers weren’t allowed to collaborate with their counterparts within the New York Metropolis Division of Well being and Psychological Hygiene or different native well being departments. The governor’s workplace would additionally arbitrarily override sure metrics, like which areas certified for varied Covid “zones,” which Cuomo used to delineate the extent of reopening restrictions in sure areas of the state. And the workplace had ordered Division of Well being workers to share incomplete information on Hydroxychloroquine with the White Home. Each issues, Dufort stated, raised moral issues on the division.
“Information was not able to be shared in a fashion that might be moral or acceptable,” she instructed investigators of the Hydroxychloroquine request. However the governor’s workplace insisted the division share the unfinished information, Dufort stated. She stated she was ready to resign slightly than hand over the data.