“Obviously we, like states across the country… have been learning an incredible amount about COVID 19, it being a novel virus. The amount that we’ve learned just in the last eight weeks is dramatically different from what we knew as we were watching the cases exponentially rise. The clear indication is that older people are more susceptible and at congregate care facilities, that is exacerbated.”
Those were the shocking words of Governor Gretchen Whitmer at a recent press conference, responding to repeated questions about her disastrous – and potentially deadly – nursing home policy. The Governor continues sending patients with COVID-19 into Michigan nursing homes and assisted living facilities, despite the best science and data that prove how devastating the virus is for our seniors.
Physicians advised for months before the state’s first COVID case that seniors and the infirm were the patients most vulnerable to the disease. In fact, the Governor routinely held up Italy’s struggle with the virus as the reason behind her decision to close schools and keep workers off jobsites.
Now, at least 23% of the fatalities in the state have occurred in nursing homes, a number Whitmer calls an “undercount.”
All of which begs the question. Does anybody actually believe the Governor didn’t know eight weeks ago that seniors and the infirm are of particular risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19?
And if “the clear indication is that older people are more susceptible and at congregate care facilities, that is exacerbated”, why won’t Whitmer end the state’s policy of sending COVID-19 patients to nursing homes where they threaten the lives of Michigan seniors?
We keep asking. Families keep worrying. Our seniors keep dying.
What’s it going to take for Governor Whitmer to pay attention?
Sincerely,
Tony Daunt
Executive Director
Michigan Freedom Fund
