Daily Cuomo: Trump's suggestion New York is inflating death toll is 'bizarre'

Donald Trump suggested New York was inflating its coronavirus death toll during a press conference on Wednesday, claiming, “In fact, I see, this morning, where New York added 3,000 deaths because they died. And they’re now saying — rather than, ‘It was a heart attack’ — they’re saying, ‘It was a heart attack caused by this.’  So they’re adding.”

The statement amplified a conspiratorial argument pushed by conservative media figures like Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, who have been influential with Trump in the past.

A reporter asked Cuomo about the allegation at his Thursday briefing.

From the April 16 press briefing:

NEW YORK GOV. ANDREW CUOMO: Look, I think what you’re seeing is — well first, I don’t know what the president said, specifically what his words were, and I don’t — why would New York City want to inflate a death toll? I mean, that doesn’t make a lot of sense.

 

It’s bad enough as it is, it’s painful enough as it is, why would you want to inflate the death toll? Look, I don’t know but it sounds even more bizarre than the usual, that at anyone would want to do that.

 

I think what’s happening is they’re changing — CDC put out different guidelines about what numbers you must report. We’ve always said all we really know are deaths in a hospital or deaths in a nursing home. Could people be dying at home because of the coronavirus and we’re not counting them? Yes. Was this a rough estimate? Yes.

 

So now we’re trying to refine the estimate, other categories, other possibilities.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.