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Posted on 03/24/2021 5:58:16 PM PDT by lightman
Dr. Rachel Levine will be the next U.S. assistant health secretary and she becomes the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Levine, Pennsylvania’s former health secretary. President Joe Biden named Levine as his nominee for the key post in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., voted against Levine’s confirmation, as he said he would. Toomey cited the number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and also said her support for restrictions to curb the spread of the virus hurt the state’s businesses.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., backed Levine’s nomination. He previously voted to advance her nomination in an earlier vote in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
“Dr. Levine is the kind of crisis-tested leader our nation needs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during this ongoing difficult time for the nation,” Casey said in a statement after the vote Wednesday afternoon.
“Throughout her long career in medicine and public service, she has demonstrated her deep knowledge of health care and public health and her skills as a manager,” Casey said. “I was proud to vote to confirm her to the position of Assistant Secretary of Health at HHS and support her historic nomination.”
Speaking on the Senate floor Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Levine is well qualified for the post. Murray hailed the historic nature of Levine’s nomination and said she was proud of what it represented.
“She will be the highest ranking openly transgender official in our government,” Murray said.
The Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Levine, going largely along party lines in the narrowly divided chamber. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted in favor of Levine.
As Pennsylvania’s health secretary, Levine gained high visibility as a leader in the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Levine earned praise for speaking calmly and assuredly as the virus spread across Pennsylvania. She touted aggressive restrictions on businesses to stem the spread of COVID-19, angering lawmakers and some business groups who said the measures were hurting companies and workers already struggling in the pandemic.
Still, the state’s measures also won praise from some health experts, including Dr. Deborah Birx, the former federal coronavirus response coordinator. When Birx visited Pennsylvania last fall, she said the limits on occupancy of restaurants and other businesses were successful in mitigating the spread of the virus.
Speaking of Pennsylvania’s effort at the time, Birx said, “I never give anyone an A, but I think they’re close to a B-plus, A-minus range, a really terrific job.”
However, Levine drew intense criticism over the high number of deaths in nursing homes and what critics termed an ineffective response as cases spiked in long-term care facilities.
Nearly 25,000 deaths in Pennsylvania have been tied to COVID-19 and more than half of those deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, according to state data.
Republican lawmakers have criticized Levine and Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration for allowing some nursing home residents hospitalized due to COVID-19 to return to their own facilities to recover. Critics have said the Wolf administration’s guidance led to spikes of coronavirus cases in long-term care facilities.
Nursing home trade groups in Pennsylvania have said they are not aware of the state’s guidance leading to any deaths or outbreaks and they aren’t aware of any facility that was forced to accept a COVID-positive patient against its wishes.
Some lawmakers, including Collins, R-Maine, have questioned Levine about gaps in data about cases in nursing homes, Spotlight PA reported. But Collins also voted to confirm Levine’s nomination Wednesday.
When Biden nominated Levine, the president hailed her as “a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration’s health efforts.”
Levine received praise and support for her grace in the wake of transphobic bigotry over the course of the past year. Some in the transgender community hailed her as a role model.
Despite the insults, Levine said she remained “laser focused on building a healthy Pennsylvania for all.”
Levine served as the state’s physician general from 2015 to 2017. She became the state’s acting health secretary in 2017 and was confirmed as Pennsylvania’s secretary of health in 2018.
After the Senate vote, Wolf congratulated Levine on her confirmation.
“I couldn’t be prouder of all she’s done to serve Pennsylvanians — including her tireless work during the pandemic,” Wolf said on Twitter. “The nation is lucky to have her strength, experience, and compassion in this key role.”
No matter how many appendages amputated,
No matter how many hormones injected,
No matter how many wardrobe changes,
He has--and ALWAYS will have--that pesky Y chromosome
Pennsylvania Ping!
Please ping me with articles of interest.
FReepmail me to be added to the list.
What could go wrong?
Surplus testes anyone?
However, far from being the first to be confirmed with a mental disorder.
Fabulous! We are so throwing a party!!
(Cue 90s Eurodance techno music)
Gross
It’s history when a mentally ill guy takes on a medical position in the US government?
Guess that IS big news.
Ah, our gender-ambiguous Dr. Potato Head has arrived on the scene. Mix and match parts to your heart’s desire
> Rachel Levine makes history <
And that means literally nothing. Suppose I choose to dress up as Napoleon. I wear the hat, the medals, the uniform - I go the whole nine yards. And then I get confirmed as “the first U.S. assistant health secretary to dress up as Napoleon.”
What would that mean? Yep, it would mean literally nothing.
I don’t think I need to be or should be sorry for this man. Someone who’s trying to destroy my way of life does not warrant sympathy for his own mental delusions. My way of life and my family come first.
The man is a sick whack job and should not have a position of authority over other people anywhere.
When you get down to it, having all of the Senators referring to this man as if he were a woman is an indication of just how royally perverted our government and Society have become
This wouldn’t be one bit nuttier if Congress passed a law saying that we all had to worship the giant Spaghetti Monster.
Serious? Here comes the castration clinics?
He did not make history - he officially turned the United States into Sodom, to be followed by the judgment of God on a wicked, godless nation.
Demented Communist psychotic pervert as secretary of health. What could possibly go wrong?
God, the lord Christ and the Holy Spirit have to fix this one.
Incompetent in Pennsylvania. Imagine how much worse for the entire nation.
We humor it.
An abject failure in PA. Hid his mom from Wolf’s orders to put covid patients in nursing home. Got his out first. Criminal nutjob.
Yep. Zero real accomplishment.
Romans 1:22 professiong themselves to be wise they became fools....
He’s a horrible mental and obese individual living a lie so he had no problem pulling his mother out of her nursing home while lying to the public about their loved ones.
He will not be good at all for this country and I for one will never listen at all to what he tells, nor act on anything he says to the public.
Frankly I’m glad that it was kicked upstairs...can’t issue orders directly affecting Pennsylvanians anymore.
My mantra last year was and remains:
“I DON’T DO DICTATES FROM DR. DICKLESS”
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