Publisher halts Cuomo book promotion, citing nursing home inquiry

The publisher of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's book on his leadership during the coronavirus pandemic has effectively stopped promoting the book due to inquiries into the governor allegedly withholding data on nursing home deaths due to COVID-19.

Cuomo's book, "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic," was published on Oct. 13 by Penguin Random House. The book focuses on Cuomo's account of how he responded to the pandemic and other stories about the governor's time in government.

Gillian Blake of Crown Publishing Group, the division of Penguin Random House publishing the book, this week told the New York Times there were "no plans" to reprint or reissue the book in paperback citing specifically "the ongoing investigation into N.Y.S. reporting of Covid-related fatalities in nursing homes."

New York City was among the hardest hit by the pandemic in its early stages.

The publisher also made the decision to no longer promote the book amid allegations by several women about inappropriate behavior by Cuomo, in addition to Justice Department and New York Attorney General's Office investigation into the number of Covid-related deaths in nursing homes.

Cuomo early in the pandemic said nursing homes had to accept Covid patients, in an effort to ease hospital overcrowding. 

A Cuomo aide recently said the administration concealed the number of nursing home residents for fear of reprisal from the Justice Department under President Trump. 

According to reporting by the New York Times, the Cuomo administration in June reported 6,500 nursing home residents had died in June due to the virus, however, they omitted those who were transported to hospitals which put the number at 9,000,

Nearly 32% of those who died of COVID-19 in New York were nursing home residents, or 15,000 of 47,000, according to numbers obtained by the Times.

The Daily Caller was in May 2020 the first to report the undercounting of nursing home deaths.