Democrat New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s publisher has stopped promoting his book due to his handling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the New York Times.
Gillian Blake of Crown Publishing Group told the Times that there were “no plans” to continue reprinting his book or to reissue it in paperback due to “the ongoing investigation into N.Y.S reporting of Covid-related fatalities in nursing homes.”
“Pending the ongoing investigation, we have paused active support of ‘American Crisis’ and have no plans to reprint or reissue in paperback,” said Blake.
The book’s sales have drastically declined over the last month. From Jan. 23rd to Feb. 27th, the book sold only 400 copies, according to NPD Bookscan. His book has sold 45,800 copies with several thousand e-books also purchased.
The book, titled “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic,” which was swiftly published last year, commemorated his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The book described how Cuomo led the state of New York during the crisis.
Cuomo is accused of concealing the number of actual deaths in nursing homes, removing nursing home residents who died in hospitals from the state’s official account.
The state released data in February after the state’s attorney general Letitia James implied widespread undercounting of the deaths. A court ordered the information to be released to the public due to a Freedom of Information lawsuit by a conservative think tank, Empire Center.
Cuomo had started writing the book early last summer after receiving mass praise for his leadership during the pandemic, including winning an Emmy award due to his “masterful” press breifings.
In June, some of Cuomo’s top aides were fighting the Health Department over what data would be presented to the public. The state was publically reporting that 6,500 nursing home residents had died, but the real number was over 9,000. His aides had intentionally tampered with the reports in order to make Cuomo’s handling look better, which resulted in false information being released to the public.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have been probing Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes, according to the Times.
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