Posted on 05/19/2020 4:06:15 PM PDT by lightman
A Lebanon County Republican lawmaker is adding his voice to the calls for the immediate resignation or removal of Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine.
Rep. Russ Diamond said Levine needs to go. He cited “the horrific results of the department’s COVID-19 policy” in regard to the number of cases and deaths that have occurred in nursing homes and other facilities under the department’s oversight. More than two-thirds of the state’s coronavirus deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities.
Diamond has introduced a resolution calling for Levine’s ouster or for Gov. Tom Wolf to demand the health secretary’s resignation.
Last week, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Franklin County, called for Levine’s resignation, saying she has committed the equivalent of policy malpractice in her handling of the coronavirus pandemic and its spread through nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
On Tuesday, Diamond said the scope of the pandemic’s toll on nursing home and long-term care facilities did not become apparent to the public until House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, demanded the release of more details regarding the number of deaths that have occurred inside these facilities. To date, he said only a portion of the requested information was provided and that didn’t occur until a month after the request was made.
“Dr. Levine’s resistance to release data and her non-cooperation with co-workers, in this case a co-equal branch of government, would never be considered acceptable business management practices in the private sector,” Diamond said in a news release. “When lives were on the line in Pennsylvania, Levine did not sufficiently answer the call to public service and her duty to carry out appropriate control measures to limit the spread of disease in order to protect all Pennsylvanians. What makes matters worse is that we’re talking about the most vulnerable among us.”
When questioned in a news conference Tuesday, Levine said she had no specific reaction to Diamond’s call for her removal.
“I remain committed to protecting the residents of Pennsylvania,” Levine said.
To date, state figures show that nursing homes residents and personal care homes account for 13,813 cases of COVID-19 and 2,191 cases among employees, for a total of 16,003 cases at 557 distinct facilities in 44 counties.
Out of 4,624 COVID-19 deaths that have occurred in Pennsylvania, 3,145 involved residents from nursing or personal care facilities.
Diamond’s call for Levine’s removal comes on the same day the Department of Health released data on the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths at long-term care facilities in Pennsylvania.
In a statement about the data’s release, Levine said, "COVID-19 is a particularly challenging situation for these settings as they care for residents with serious medical conditions. We will continue to work to ensure the safety and wellbeing of residents through education, resources and testing.”
The data provides the number of cases, number of employee cases and number of deaths that have occurred at each facility. For facilities with less than five in any of these data points, the information is redacted.
Last week, Gov. Tom Wolf defended his health secretary, saying, “My assessment of Dr. Levine is that she is doing a phenomenal job, and I think we’ve got to be careful about blaming the messenger for the message.”
Diamond said the initial U.S. reports of a COVID-19 outbreak report from Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., a week prior to Wolf’s March 6 disaster emergency declaration, should have been instructional to Levine.
“Instead of heeding that clear warning, Dr. Levine instituted Department of Health policies which halted routine inspections and issued guidance for nursing facilities to admit and readmit patients who tested positive for COVID-19,” Diamond said. “For the vulnerable Pennsylvanians residing in those facilities, it’s like they were being forced to live within a ticking time bomb.”
He added that he found it disturbing to learn last week that at some point during the height of the COVID-19 crisis, Levine removed her own mother from a central Pennsylvania personal care home and checked her into a premium hotel.
“For these reasons and more, I have introduced House Resolution 879. I ask my colleagues for their full support," Diamond said. “Dr. Levine serves at the pleasure of Gov. Tom Wolf and I urge him to answer the heartbreak of thousands of Pennsylvanians, and widespread public calls for competence and transparency, by immediately removing Dr. Levine from the position of Pennsylvania’s secretary of Health, or demanding her resignation.”
The Lebanon County Commissioners have voted to declare their jurisdiction "yellow" effect Friday May 22 in defiance of Governor Wolf's order that the county remain "red".
Lebanon is in the second tier of counties from the Maryland border, next to the last at the west end of the large red zone. Sorry for the lack of county name labels.
Pennsylvania Ping!
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I really don’t understand the problem here, and I doubt the majority of Pennsylvanians do either. I have always put a great of trust in people who make same, rational and wise decisions. Like cutting off your penis. That’s normal, right?
Now that Ohio is open things are going to get very hot for Wolf.
They could deal with the cut off penis. Moving Mama out of a nursing home while condemning other people’s mamas to death was too much.
What an a-hole.
Franklin County, largely rural (largest city is Chambersburg at 21K) is that isolated red county on the Maryland border between the yellow and orange zones.
There is a little bit of retaliation in play here.
Just a little bit.
The border counties are very aware that as of last week most of Maryland opened with decisions being made on the county level by county officials.
So you can get a haircut this week in any border county except Baltimore. Some even have eat-in restaurants at reduced capacity.
Tommie the Commie’s “northeast compact” is looking increasingly stupid.
This son of a bitch Wolf can drop dead!
“Dr. Rachel Levine” is a man, right? A guy with gender dysphoria. And he’s their “Health Secretary”? OK ...
Yup.
Any wonder Pennsy is f***ed up?
The guy is a mentally ill Transvestite. How did we ever get to this point where a freak like him is a high profile public servant?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3846690/posts?page=9#9
That is the ONLY time-tested, proven eye-wash antiodote!
God Bless our most lovely FLOTUS!
The deranged Dr. Levine is a pediatric specialist. Imagine trusting your child to a transvestite.
“Dr. Rachel Levine” is no man. No man would voluntarily have their own dick removed. But it ain’t no woman either.
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