Posted on 05/11/2020 9:16:12 AM PDT by lightman
A state senator from Franklin County has called for the immediate resignation of Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, saying her actions were a major factor in the large number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the states nursing homes.
Sen. Doug Mastriano, a first-term Republican representing Franklin, Adams and a part of York counties, said Levine has committed the equivalent of policy malpractice in her handling of the coronavirus pandemic, specifically in her handling of the viruss spread through nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
Mastriano specifically targeted Levine for a policy which called for nursing home and long-term care patients who had been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19 to be returned to their homes when they were ready for release from hospitals. Mastriano said that contributed to major outbreaks in numerous nursing homes around the state.
Our secretary of health, Dr. Levine, decided that it would be good to allow COVID-positive patients to be returned to elder-care facitlies. And as a result of that, it broke out like fire, Mastriano said during a rally with constituents at the base of the Capitol steps Monday.
"The very same people our secretary of health said were going to be vulnerable... It unleashed heck upon our dearly beloved fathers, mothers, grandparents, aunts and uncles. I think thats unconscionable, unacceptable, and that secretary needs to be held accountable for that awful decision, Mastriano said.
The senator also blasted Levine for what he called the departments poor response to the outbreaks in homes once it had become apparent they were one of the epicenters of the problem in Pennsylvania.
To date, state figures show that nursing homes residents have accounted for 2,529 of the states 3,707 reported COVID-19 deaths. That is a pattern that has been echoed in most states across the country, however.
In a policy guidance issued in March, the Health Department stated, in part:
"Nursing care facilities must continue to accept new admissions and receive readmissions for current residents who have been discharged from the hospital who are stable to alleviate the increasing burden in the acute care settings. This may include stable patients who have had the COVID-19 virus."
Health Department Press Sectretary Nate Wardle said there were valid reasons for that policy, and challenged Mastrianos interpretation of the data.
In most cases, Wardle said, individuals being readmitted to a long-term care facility from the hospital with COVID-19 would be those who would have had COVID-19 before they were sent to the hospital,. In these cases, the readmitted resident would not be introducing it to the facility, if they already had COVID-19 and needed more acute care at the hospital.
There were other cases, Wardle noted, in which persons with COVID-19 needed continuing care, but no longer hospital care, and was placed in a a long-term care facility that had bed space to ease capacity in the hospitals.
It was not immediately clear how often that happened, or if it was a direct cause of some of the worst outbreaks at long-term care facilities in the state.
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Wolf is under siege in the bunker.
Please he is a freak show.
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
FReepmail me to be added to the list.
Isn’t Levine the she-male? Pretty sure it’s a Protected Class.
And of course since it’s a Democrat doing the accusations, we know that he/she/ht/whatever (one never knows when we’re talkin’ Democrat) is a dumb clueless POS with no intellect whatsoever.
Shove it, PA. You elected the talking anus. Suck up and enjoy the smell.
My gawd that’s soooo bad. And it’s who/what I thought it/he/she was.
It’s Jake! from State Farm!
Its him! The dude who prances around unsuccessfully pretending to be a female! Yuck!
The far left will call Sen. Mastriano “transphobic” in 3... 2... 1...
Who is NY’s Health Secretary?
Sounds like a pilot plan to absolve eastern and western CSA Generals Cuomo and Newsom.
Hmm, Lawyer and doctor Doctor Howard A. Zucker, Commissioner of Health.
https://www.health.ny.gov/commissioner/bio/
Howard Zucker finds himself at the center of the coronavirus storm
https://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/howard-zucker-coronavirus-1.42545804
The vast majority of PA counties are Republican.
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh ruin the state.
PA is number two for hunting in the nation.
Why would any decent individual torture his fellow FReepers with a pic of this vomit-inducing creature?
Because the only known eye wash antidote is to follow up with a picture of our lovely FLOTUS
RULES!
Let them. Who CARES what the Left calls anyone? (insert evil laugh here)
The country must not be allowed to degenerate to a nation of pussified castrari, terrified of (gasp!) criticism.
Are these people experts or a circus act?
You mean ol’ Dick is about to get the .... (well, never mind). :-)
Shove it, PA. You elected the talking anus. Suck up and enjoy the smell.
What an asinine thing to say to all the good Pennsylvanians who have never in their lives voted for a Democrat.
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