May 13, 2020

USA: Pennsylvania Health Secretary Moved Own Mother Out Of A Nursing Home To A Hotel During Pandemic While Governor Wolf FORCED Nursing Homes To Take In Patients Infected With Covid19.

ABC27 News, Pennsylvania local
written by Dennis Owens
Tuesday May 12, 2020

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — Nearly 70% of Pennsylvania’s Covid-19 deaths, 2611 of 3806, have occurred in nursing homes or long-term care facilities. State Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine announced new guidance for those facilities on Tuesday to include more resources, education, and mass testing.

“By testing every resident and every staff member in every nursing home, we will be able to pinpoint exactly who has Covid-19, who has been exposed but has no symptoms, and cohort positive cases to prevent further spread,” Levine said, adding that the state will also require nursing homes to report all cases and deaths which will be available publicly.

While Levine beefs up rules and oversight at nursing homes and long-term care facilities, ABC27 learned the health secretary’s mother recently vacated a personal care home in the Midstate.

“My mother requested, and my sister and I as her children complied to move her to another location during the Covid-19 outbreak,” Levine said. “My mother is 95 years old. She is very intelligent and more than competent to make her own decisions.”

Many in Harrisburg wondered what kind of message it sends — when a close relative of the person tasked with overseeing those types of facilities doesn’t choose to stay in one. Levine countered that she is working to protect the health of all Pennsylvanians.

Governor Wolf continued to take fire Tuesday, mostly from Republican elected officials, over his decisions on what counties and businesses can or cannot reopen.

The Round the Clock Diner, in Wolf’s home county of York, defiantly opened its doors and is serving dine-in customers against the rules of the red phase. The York district attorney, however, has vowed to not prosecute business owners who ignore the governor’s shutdown mandate.

Wolf insisted on Tuesday that his approach is not slow but deliberate and that it has saved Pennsylvanian lives.

“We’re all fighting a common enemy and the enemy is not the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” he said. “It’s not me. It’s not Donald Trump. It’s not the General Assembly. It’s this virus. We are all fighting this war together. We can’t run up the white flag. We have got to fight this to the end.”

The governor maintains that if the state were to re-open too soon, and the virus comes roaring back, eight weeks of sacrifice and self-exile would have been wasted.
NBC6 WJAC News, Pennsylvania local
written by Crispin Havener
Tuesday May 12, 2020

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WJAC) — The Coronavirus pandemic is taking an especially deadly toll on state nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Deaths from these places alone have accounted for 68.6 percent of all deaths in the state as of Tuesday, according to state data.

Yet the state is under increased scrutiny for their policies that some have argued has made the crisis worse.

This month a consortium of Mid-Atlantic newspapers under the USA Today Network detailed the policy in Pennsylvania and other states that’s ordering nursing homes to admit medically stable residents infected with the coronavirus.

Spotlight PA, a partnership between the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Harrisburg’s PennLive, also found evidence the Pennsylvania Department of Health drafted a quick strike plan to protect nursing homes in March, but never fully implemented it.

In the meantime, some facilities have become death traps.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the state because of their lack of inspections after dozens of people died at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Beaver County. This week, the state took over the facility as part of a negotiated agreement, and the National Guard was called in to help.

“I don’t think our initial and our continuing plans have been misguided at all,” said Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania Health Secretary on May 4.

Levine said all states have had difficulties with senior living facilities.

The Department of Health nearly $1 million contract with Pennsylvania-based ECRI last month to help guide them through the pandemic and the state eventually began releasing county numbers for nursing homes. Still: Pennsylvania is one of a few states that to date has not released specific nursing home data.

Leaders have cited state privacy laws.

“Really, it’s the responsibility of the facilities to be notifying loved ones,” Levine said April 29.

Changes were announced Tuesday.

Levine revealed the state will publicly release individual nursing home data starting next week. They will also better monitor positive patients as well as ensure the testing of residents and employees weekly.

“This effort will give us a clearer picture of the extent of outbreaks in nursing homes and a head start at stopping them,” Levine said.

Critics though have called for Levine to be held accountable for her and the state’s prior inaction.

President Donald Trump criticized governors across the U.S. on Monday for not doing better testing in nursing homes and would consider making testing mandatory in all nursing homes.

“I think it’s important to do,” Trump said.

Republican State Senator Doug Mastriano held a rally at the capitol steps Monday to call for Levine’s resignation.

Levine did not comment Monday when asked about the resignation demand, though her boss, Gov. Tom Wolf, D-Pa., defended her.

“She’s done a phenomenal job,” Wolf said. “I think it’s a tribute to her that Pennsylvania has actually done a better job than our neighboring states on infection rates and death rates.”

On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of Pittsburgh area state house representatives, led by House Speaker Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, proposed a bill designed to enhance testing capabilities, infection control, and advanced clinical practices in senior facilities with the help of public-private partnerships.

“In many ways, the state has failed those citizens,” Turzai said. “We have to get this done to save our seniors in these residences.”

Levine was asked by a reporter Tuesday about her mother being moved out of a long-term care facility, Levine said she was allowing the wishes of her 95-year-old mother to move from a personal care home to a hotel.

Tuesday also saw Attorney General Josh Shapiro announce he has opened criminal investigations into several nursing homes in the commonwealth.
Remember everybody on the Left accusing us of wanting to kill the elderly for not agreeing to extending the lockdown? They told us we were quarantined to protect the elderly and vulnerable who they were intentionally murdering. Yep. :/

UPDATE 5/13/20 at 11:17pm: Added info below.
70% of Covid19 deaths in Pennsylvania are senior citizens that Governor Wolfe murdered by forcing nursing homes to take in PATIENTS INFECTED WITH COVID19. 70% that were completely avoidable deaths. These elderly fragile Americans should have been protected by the government, not murdered. (emphasis mine)

UPDATE 5/14/20 at 11:54am: Added info below.
UPDATE 5/14/20 at 5:17pm: Added info below.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 7:10 PM

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