5 Burning Questions for Governor Whitmer
Will She Sign Bipartisan Bill to Protect Nursing Home Residents? Why Won’t State Release Data? Will She Follow Science, CDC & Open Schools?
LANSING, MI, July 28, 2020 – The Michigan Freedom Fund today asked Governor Gretchen Whitmer to be more transparent with press and the public and to release long-requested and critical data surrounding the state’s decision to move patients with COVID-19 into the state’s assisted living facilities, among the population most vulnerable to the virus.
Burning questions the Governor should answer today include:
1) Will Governor Whitmer sign bipartisan legislation approved last week to prohibit the state from importing COVID-19 into the state’s nursing homes, where thousands of Michigan parents, grandparents and loved ones have already lost their lives?
2) How many infections and deaths have taken place in Michigan assisted living facilities, and why hasn’t the state gathered and released this information after months of requests from the press?
3) Will Governor Whitmer release the data showing deaths by facility and date, as well as the dates when patients who’d tested positive for COVID-19 were moved into nursing home and assisted living facilities?
4) Media reports and statements from medical examiners indicate some who’ve lost their lives in the state and are classified as “covid deaths” died from causes other than COVID-19, including suicide.
Will the state open its records today and allow the press to audit death certificates – with names redacted – for those whose deaths have been classified as “COVID-19 deaths?”
5) The Centers for Disease Control and the Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics have strongly recommended students return to in-person learning this September. The scientists and health care experts have provided numerous studies, science and data that indicate it is more dangerous for students to keep them away from school than to allow them to return.
Will Governor Whitmer follow the science, the data, and the guidance of the CDC and doctors and allow schools to open their doors for in-person learning for the start of the school year?
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