Eight Republican Michigan state senators sent letters to acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in which they d4emanded an investigation into the handling of COVID-19 in Michigan.
The similarities between Whitmer and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are daunting. Both ordered COVID positive patients into nursing homes. Both hid the true number of deaths in nursing homes. Residents of Michigan’s long-term care facilities accounted for 5,549 of the 16,436 suspected and confirmed COVID-19 deaths.
This is the third state that wants answers as to why you would send COVID patients into nursing homes.
Whitmer even ordered patients that were still considered contagious to be sent into nursing homes. Republicans and those who lost loved ones in the nursing homes want answers and they want someone to be held accountable.
New York and Andrew Cuomo were the first to be roasted for his decision. Rachel Levine of Pennsylvania was questioned during her confirmation hearing about the fact that in Pennsylvania 52% of all deaths were in nursing homes.
Republican governors gave just the opposite order that COVID patients were not to be sent to nursing homes and guess what? They had fewer fatalities than states who did send them.
State Sen. Jim Runestad, who spearheaded the letters said:
There are too many similarities between what happened in New York and what’s happened here in Michigan not to open an investigation. The families who lost loved ones deserve to know what happened and to get justice.”
Whitmer’s orders did contain some noteworthy exceptions for nursing homes. For example, her orders required Michigan nursing homes to only accept patients previously hospitalized with COVID-19 only if they were below 80% capacity and had an isolation unit dedicated to the care of such patients.
Michigan nursing homes that did not meet those requirements were required under Whitmer’s orders to transfer COVID-positive patients to a regional hub or a hospital in the state with available bed capacity.
State Sen. Jim Runestad, who spearheaded the letters, said Whitmer’s handling of COVID-19 in Michigan nursing homes shares close similarities to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the virus in his state’s long-term care facilities.
