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Posted on 03/21/2021 11:39:49 AM PDT by lightman
Dear Neighbor:
For almost a year, I and other members of the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation have been asking the Wolf Administration for answers as to why residents in long-term care facilities and nursing homes were not protected against COVID-19.
As the world has grappled with the virus, we quickly learned that senior citizens and those with underlying health conditions were at the highest risk for serious health impacts, including death. Over 50 percent of Pennsylvania’s deaths attributable to COVID-19 have been residents of senior living or long-term care facilities.
Sadly, this trend is true across the nation. The COVID Tracking Project, reports that nearly 35 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the United States have been residents of senior living facilities. The impact is genuinely disproportionate, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that less than half of one percent of the nation’s population.
That Gov. Wolf and his administration refuse to take responsibility and provide answers is unacceptable. Residents in long-term care facilities and nursing homes are not just statistics on a page. They are grandparents, parents, neighbors, and friends.
On March 18, 2020, guidance issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Health required nursing homes to allow new admissions and re-admissions of individuals who had received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. This allowed the contagion to spread like wildfire in senior living facilities, creating heartache for too many families.
Pennsylvanians should not forget that while Dr. Levine was forcing nursing homes to admit COVID-19 positive patients, she removed her own mother from a similar facility and had her checked into a hotel. By doing so, she silently acknowledged that her own order was dangerous; her behavior was devastating to the families who do not have the privilege to remove their loved ones from elderly care facilities.
Shockingly, Dr. Levine has faced no repercussions and instead, President Biden is rewarding Dr. Levine’s gross negligence by nominating her to be the Assistant Secretary of Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her confirmation was advanced by Senate Democrats on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee last week. We need someone serving in government that puts the needs of the people first, not themselves.
This week, Sen. Pat Toomey and I led a letter to Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Health Allison Beam posing a number of questions about how the Department led by Dr. Levine failed to protect residents of senior living facilities during the pandemic and how the Department failed to address long-standing issues to improve oversight of nursing homes.
Additionally, I joined my colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee in sending a letter to Dr. Levine, asking her to clarify her February testimony to the Senate HELP Committee, regarding the incomplete and inaccurate nursing death data. In her testimony, Dr. Levine gave answers which conflicted with public reporting by Spotlight PA.
Every time Wolf and his administration are asked a question, the answer is simply accepted.
The fact of the matter is Gov. Wolf and Sec. Dr. Levine’s order requiring nursing homes to accept patients with COVID-19 led to deaths in senior living facilities. What actions, if any, did Wolf and Levine take at the onset of the pandemic to prevent these tragedies? Why did Dr. Levine ignore calls to address long-standing issues in Pennsylvania’s nursing homes which pre-dated the pandemic? The results of their incompetence are tragic.
Dr. Levine should not be confirmed by the United States Senate because of the March 18, 2020 guidance from her department, her failure to improve oversight and care in nursing home facilities and the abysmal preparation and execution of the beginning stages of the vaccine rollout.
Pennsylvanians deserve answers.
Sincerely,
Lloyd Smucker Member of Congress
Link to his letter to the Acting PA Secretary of Health:
https://www.toomey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2021_03_16_Toomey_Smucker_Nursing_Homes.pdf
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At the nursing home my wife works at out here in rural MO, they’ve had 35 residents get covid and two died but those two were in bad shape to begin with and the flu probably would have killed them.
How is it these big blue cities with all their high tech capabilities did so bad?
Negligent homicide?
Could some of them done something to make sure they got that $14k per death?
Smucker is a RINO that failed to oppose the election fraud - or to support trump.
Toomey sucks too.
I’ll bet Congressman Smucker has had it ‘up to here’ with people asking him “Oh, By any chance, are you related to
the Smuckers who may those delicious jellies?”
Which scandal is worse? The fraud of Nov. 3rd or the thousand of senior deaths at various facilities around the country? I can’t make up my mind. All I know, is that a lot of politicians and bureaucrats should be spending their lives in prison.
Which scandal is worse? The fraud of Nov. 3rd or the thousand of senior deaths at various facilities around the country? I can’t make up my mind. All I know, is that a lot of politicians and bureaucrats should be spending their lives in prison.
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imo, they worked hand in hand.
the (deliberate) nursing home deaths help frame the scare reporting of MSM.
....which made fraudulent mail in ballots, vote harvesting, illegally changeing election law easier for the public to swallow.
.... which set the stage for dominion & corrupt electioneering to step in with the final COUP de gras
Oh, and also he’s a wierdo who had his johnson removed or turned inside out or something, and now he is a she.
But even so, he/she is a mass murderer and should hang alongside Cuomo, Whitmer, Newsome, and whoever the hell is governor of Jersey.
That would be cruel. Hang them instead.
Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, if his song is to be believed. But these a$$holes did it on a wholesale basis for the sake of political intrigue.
I have no problem with capital punishment. However, if we made them do HARD labor, I would prefer that. We all die, and lethal injection or hanging is a quick easy way out from what they deserve. I'd rather they suffer the pain of chain gangs or such for life. Of course, now we coddle them in nice clean entertaining prisons. Where is Alcatraz when you need it?
Smucker will get more respect and recognition when he drops the politically correct bull $hit and uses the proper pronoun for Levin and directly accuse Levin and Wolf for murder and advocating genital mutilation of children. Liberal uses of the words vile, evil, abomination are most accurate and appropriate. We all know weakly worded letters get no where. Perhaps he can up his game a little with a strongly worded letter and makes leftist heads explode.
Alcatraz is a tourist attraction. The sound of the men on the chain gang is a golden oldy. Where is the Phantom Zone when you need it? Love to see some ex-governors being made Zord’s bitch.
If only lynch mobs were still a thing.
Har!
That I don't want to see. There are other ways. Think clandestine spec operators who still believe in their oath. It would only take a few to put the Fear of God in these totalitarians. I don't mean violence, just enough threat to make them realize they are not invulnerable.
Spec Operators can play the same game as BLM/Antifa by doxxing them and showing up at their homes in black SWAT type uniforms. No need to shoot anyone, the intimidation factor enough times could make them re-think their totalitarian policies. Just make them FEAR American Patriots. There are not enough Secret Service to surround them at all times. BTW, leave their families alone.
Smucker is the only member of Congress—ever—to have begun life in the Amish community.
He left the community after his rumspringer.
Yup.
Take a finger. Maybe a thumb.
They’ll fly right for life after that.
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