Posted on 05/15/2020 4:13:05 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell
Socialized medicine isn’t the answer unless the question is, “How do we kill more senior citizens?”
Fri May 15, 2020
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
The lockdown model sought to flatten the curve by preparing hospitals for a massive influx of patients by clearing out everyone including elderly patients, who were sent back to nursing homes. The hospitals, with a few limited exceptions, were not overwhelmed, but the nursing homes were.
1 in 3 coronavirus deaths, as of now, have involved nursing homes. These deaths were amplified by policies in blue states, especially New York and New Jersey, compelling facilities to take coronavirus patients, while concealing the number of deaths at facilities behind false claims of resident privacy.
Blue state administrations have tried to blame the thousands of deaths on mismanaged private nursing homes, and while some nursing homes are badly run, the worst death tolls were in state nursing homes.
The 5 deadliest outbreaks in nursing homes took place in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Three of those facilities, the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, the Paramus Veterans Memorial Home, and Veterans Memorial Home in Menlo Park in New Jersey, are state run facilities.
New Jersey's Department of Military and Veterans Affairs runs 3 homes for veterans. 2 of them had major deadly outbreaks. As of now, the Paramus home had 72 deaths and the Menlo Park facility had 55 deaths. But the third, Vineland Veterans Memorial Home, had recorded only one death.
Paramus has 211 residents and 189 cases which means that nearly all of the residents are infected. The Menlo Park facility has 167 cases in a 190-resident facility with an equally bad infection rate. The latter facility had repeatedly come to the attention of federal inspectors who cited it for not following infection-control procedures and its health violations rate was four times the state average.
Its Medicare rating was ‘Below Average” and its health inspections rating was ‘Much Below Average’. The Paramus veterans home was also poorly rated. The Vineland home, by contrast, was highly rated.
State officials had apparently lied about staff not coming down with the virus, workers were told not to wear protective equipment, and the Paramus facility wasn’t following CDC disinfection guidelines. At Menlo Park, the family of a Vietnam veteran complained that he was wrongly placed with coronavirus patients leading to his death, and family members of other deceased residents reported facility failures.
Garden State nursing homes have been ground zero for some of the worst outbreaks in the country, but even among them, the homes run by New Jersey have been the worst. Had a Republican been in charge of the state, instead of a Wall Street donor to the Obama campaign, the media might have noticed that.
When Governor Murphy was asked who was currently running the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, he replied, “There’s an acting person who came in from under him. I don’t know that name.”
Murphy didn’t know because, his political appointee had resigned in the middle of the pandemic to run for Congress, infuriated that some members of the New Jersey delegation, one of whom had a brother-in-law at one of the facilities, had called for a federal investigation into the breakdown.
The former department boss claimed that he had resigned so as not "embarrass Gov. Murphy by running against a candidate [he] supports."
Despite the pretense that blue state politicos cared about veterans or nursing homes, Murphy had no clue who was in charge of veterans affairs or the facilities that had 2 of the 3 deadliest nursing home outbreaks in the state. And he made it quite clear that he really didn’t care.
In Massachusetts, the outbreak at the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke with 74 deaths was by far the worst in the state where other facilities had an average of 10 deaths. Holyoke is one of only two state run facilities for veterans, the other being the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home where the death toll is up to 28.
In New Jersey, two out of three state homes for veterans had major outbreaks with massive death tolls, and in Massachusetts, it was one out of two. Statistics like these tell their own story about socialized medicine.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division are investigating the Holyoke facility, and Governor Baker has brought in Mark Pearlstein, a former DA, to conduct an independent investigation on behalf of Massachusetts.
The spectacle of dead veterans and investigations of facilities meant to serve them is not a new one. It is all too likely that what happened at state facilities is exactly what had been happening at the VA with an entrenched bureaucracy running the system for its own benefit, not for those whom it’s meant to serve. The investigations will turn up local mismanagement and recommend more funding. As they usually do.
The VA, which helps funds the state homes, has claimed that it conducted inspections and that the facilities met its standards even as, some like the Paramus facility, were receiving poor Medicare grades.
Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, Governor Murphy's lackey, launched an investigation meant to focus on private nursing homes, a point he made clear when he threw around rhetoric about, "profits over patients." While there may be some truth to that, it's New Jersey's state-run homes which were some of the worst killing fields in the state. And any reckoning ought to begin with the state officials responsible.
The death tolls in nursing homes are already being used to push for more socialized medicine, but it was state medicine that was responsible for the deadliest outbreaks in nursing homes in America.
The VA scandals of the Obama administration, which may have claimed the lives of as many as 1,000 veterans, were swept under the rug, and Senator Bernie Sanders, who had tried to cover up the deaths as chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, rebounded with a push for socialized medicine.
After all this time, socialized medicine is still killing veterans.
The deaths of hundreds of veterans in state-run facilities in blue states will be covered up the same way, but they must not, cannot, and should not be forgotten. The deaths of thousands of nursing home residents are an outrage. And blue state governors in New York, New Jersey, and California, among others, should be held accountable for putting lockdown politics ahead of saving the lives of seniors.
Our nation owes a particular debt to the veterans who were left to die in Paramus, Menlo Park, and Holyoke. We should remember their names and honor the debt by telling the truth about their deaths.
Many of them defended our country by fighting socialist regimes in Korea and Vietnam. Their deaths should not be exploited to promote the big lie that socialized medicine is the answer.
Socialized medicine is not the answer unless the question is, “How do we kill more senior citizens?”
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I live in Spain where 16,000 out of 25,000 deaths were of people in nursing homes. It’s dangerous real estate.
This has always been about Medicaid costs.
I hope someone does a study looking looking at any differences in outcomes fir dual-eligible WuFlu patients in nursing homes and WuFlu patients with Medicare and Medicare with Medigap.
Just to clarify...the Soldiers Home in Holyoke, MA is not affiliated with the VA at all.
That place has always been a place where hacks are placed as administrators. And those hacks made sure THEIR hacks kept their jobs.
The patients at that place were stuffed into be 24 inches apart. The virus ripped through that place. It was criminal.
“Socialized medicine is not the answer unless the question is, ‘How do we kill more senior citizens?’”
All by design, Comrade. All. By. Design.
If you live where the Dems are in absolute power, remember to save a bullet for yourself...and one for Granny! ;)
this virus hit them hard and they died, hopefully peacefully and in no pain....
where are the families?....
Really?
You don’t deal with nursing homes much do you? People drop their old folks off...and they show up at Easter and Christmas.
You might be different (I know I am—and the staff will let you know if you are!).
The drop their parents in these places and they are thrilled because they are “free.” They get to keep all of the money and homes...and their parents are “being taken care of.”
The care for the elderly in this country is an abomination-both in terms of the money spent on these places, the efforts that go to hide money, and the absolute abdication of the families.
I would cut my arm off before I put my mom or Dad in a place like that. And when they were in Skilled Nursing Facilities, they were in good places, up to code, and I was there at least three times a week—if even for a 10 minute visit. And I brought donuts for the staff. A $6 investment every couple of months will get you a lot of attention when your parent “needs” it.
So, look around. The boomer’s legacy is that they will die alone in a government facility because its cheaper for them.
“a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist”
Why would anyone accept the title of “Shillman”?
Greenfield is a fine commentator, not a shill.
I know someone will soon educate me on what a wonderful person Shillman was, but it’s still a crappy title.
Intentional
follow the money
This death rate in nursing homes is a financial windfall for the gov’t.. Do the math. New York will benefit from theirs to the tune of $1.5 to $2.0 BILION.
They get to keep all of the money and homes
________________________________
Not correct! They cannot access Medicaid until there is an elimination of all resources or it will be claimed by the state. All real and personal property.
the rest of what you say is correct. So it is big money for the state to ‘kill’ off these people. Democrats are evil and cruel and this should prove it to anyone who is paying attention. New York will benefit, at a minimum by $1.5 to $2.0 Billion dollars with the 3,500 SNF deaths.
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