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While Pennsylvania nursing homes and long-term care facilities already face major staffing challenges, the federal vaccine mandate and a new state-proposed minimum staffing requirement could devastate the industry. President Joe Biden’s 100 percent vaccine mandate for healthcare workers is expected to throw thousands of employees out of a job, in an industry that has struggled to find workers in the last decade. Around 35 percent of Pennsylvania’s nursing home workforce is unvaccinated. That amounts to roughly 33,000 workers who would lose their jobs if they don’t get the shots, Zach Shamberg, CEO of the Pennsylvania Health Care Association told The...

An official federal government tally missed nearly 16,000 COVID-19 nursing home deaths that occurred during the early months of the pandemic, according to new research published Thursday. Those missing numbers account for 14 percent of all nursing home deaths in 2020, the study found. Across the 20 states with available data, the study, led by Harvard researcher Karen Shen and published in the JAMA Network Open, found that 44 percent of all COVID-19 cases and 40 percent of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes counted by state health departments went unreported in the federal data.

Pennsylvania on Thursday announced a goal of vaccinating 80% of nursing home staff by Oct. 1. It also announced additional steps to spur vaccination, including launching a new dashboard that will allow the public to see staff vaccination levels at every home. “If you don’t like what you see, contact the facility and encourage them to take the necessary steps to increase staff vaccination rates to keep COVID-19 out,” said Keara Klinepeter, the state health department’s executive deputy secretary. Pennsylvania has about 700 skilled nursing homes. As it stands, only 60% of staff are vaccinated, Klinepeter said. She further said...

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) said the Department of Justice's decision to end the investigations into nursing home deaths in New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey was "unconscionable." Scalise was told Friday, in a letter from the Justice Department, that the investigations into the nursing home deaths that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic would be dropped, which prompted the congressman to call out the DOJ for not finding out the truth that plagued thousands of families following the loss of their loved ones. “It is outrageous that the Department of Justice refuses to investigate the deadly ‘must admit’ orders issued...

The Department of Justice has decided not to investigate whether the civil rights of residents in New York’s government-run nursing homes were violated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s controversial admission policy related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter Friday, the DOJ’s Office of Legislative Affairs told US Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), ranking member of that House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, that New York was off the hook in connection with potential violations of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. In August, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division requested information from New York in connection with a March 25, 2020,...

While most of the attention about nursing homes being ordered to take Wuhan coronavirus positive patients has focused on New York because of the cover-up by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, it wasn’t only going on in New York. It was also ordered in other Democratic-run states in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.Congress had asked for answers from the DOJ as to what was going on in the investigations into the matter.Now, the DOJ has finally responded to House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), who is the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee for the Coronavirus Crisis.A terrible day for thousands of families....

The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) opted Thursday not to investigate coronavirus-related nursing home deaths in Michigan. Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania enacted controversial policies to placing coronavirus-infected patients into nursing homes to recuperate, effectively spreading the disease among the most susceptible population. Last year, the Trump DOJ attempted to get nursing home death data from Whitmer’s administration, and the governor issued a joint statement with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D). The pair argued there were partisan motivations for probing the large coronavirus-related percentage of nursing home deaths.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday called it a “tremendous personal benefit” to have led New York state amid the coronavirus crisis — during which he scored $5.1 million for his pandemic memoir. In a speech to his fellow governors that was loaded with presumably unintentional double meanings, Cuomo told them that they all “have a new credibility.” “Very few people were going through what we went through and we went through it together,” he said. “And speaking for myself, it was a tremendous personal benefit.” Cuomo’s controversial book deal is the subject of pending probes by federal and state officials...

As is now well known, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is currently under investigation by so many different offices for so many different scandals that it’s truly difficult to keep track of them all. And since he has to defend himself against these accusations, he needs a legal defense team. He’s already employed some of the best in the business and is reportedly in talks with some more. None of that comes cheap, however, so his legal fees will be adding up quickly. Not to worry! Cuomo will be just fine. That’s because the taxpayers are footing the bill for...

Harrisburg, PA - The Pennsylvania Department of Health today confirmed as of 12:00 a.m., May 6, there were 2,476 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 1,166,692. Please note, one lab is still getting caught up with backlogged data and another lab submitted just over 100 test results dating back to more than a month ago. There are 2,131 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19. Of that number, 467 patients are in the intensive care unit with COVID-19. Most of the patients hospitalized are ages 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred in patients 65 or...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) defended his state’s controversial nursing home directive, which instructed nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients, contending this week it was Republicans who “politicized a health order” and referring to the order as a “smart” decision from a medical point of view.

April 28, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Nearly half of the 46 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in a Kentucky nursing facility in March had been fully vaccinated against the virus more than four weeks earlier, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last week.Twenty of the 26 COVID-positive residents and four of 18 COVID-positive healthcare personnel had received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech two-shot coronavirus vaccine at on-site clinics January 10 and 31, a full month before the outbreak on March 1, making them “breakthrough” vaccinated cases of COVID.Two additional COVID-positive residents who had...

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) warned residents in the Empire State on Monday that if they are unvaccinated against COVID-19, they run the risk of “killing your grandmother.” Cuomo’s remarks were made at a press conference, where he urged “youthful” and “doubtful” New Yorkers to get the coronavirus vaccine. According to Cuomo, several youth in the state have “an attitude” regarding the vaccine and believe “they’ll be fine,” saying there could be “lingering consequences.

The office of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo refused to say what it told the Department of Justice regarding CCP virus outbreaks in nursing homes, in part because the disclosure would be an “invasion of personal privacy.” The DOJ sent requests to several states last year concerning statistics on deaths and infection in nursing homes from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. The initial request was expanded in December following news reports that the state’s nursing home numbers were significantly undercounted. Cuomo has been cooperating with the DOJ since last year, but his office...

House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Republican Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania believes he and four colleagues aren’t getting copies of monthly nursing home data because state and federal officials have something to hide. “I don’t know how many times you have to send letters and make requests for data and get no response at all,” Kelly told The Epoch Times in a March 31 interview. “Usually when you ask a question and they don’t give you an answer, it’s because they don’t want to give you an answer. “And the reason probably they don’t want to give you an answer...

TORONTO—Residents of Ontario’s long-term care homes begged on Tuesday to be allowed outside, saying anti-pandemic restrictions that have confined them indoors for more than a year make no sense given almost all have now been vaccinated. Some compared their situations to solitary confinement, and urged the provincial government to act on what they called a gross violation of their basic human rights. Chuck Ferkranus, a resident of a home in Newmarket, Ont., said no one in the building has COVID-19 and yet residents are stuck in their rooms. Ferkranus, who challenged those in authority to live as he does for...

A nursing home admin from Staten Island says that he and other facilities’ executives were “petrified” after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s controversial order that likely accelerated CCP virus outbreaks at their facilities. The administrator of the Silver Lake Specialized Rehabilitation and Care Center, Michael Kraus, told Fox News that he attempted to alert local officials about the infamous March 25 directive after he was cognizant about it, but that his worries were “shot down” by the authorities. “Many facilities vocalized it,” Kraus told Fox. “They were petrified, but they were more petrified of the Department of Health … once...

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy didn’t pull the trigger, but he created the environment for the virus to spread and kill thousands. Yes, New York’s Andrew Cuomo isn’t the only person facing a scandal concerning COVID deaths in nursing homes. Murphy is facing the same controversy. There are already hearings on the matter. Will it go anywhere? It’s tough in Democratic-run states. There is no accountability unless the charges are indefensible, or the evidence is simply too overwhelming for state lawmakers not to do anything. The worst part is Murphy was warned by state health officials that his grim reaper...

Do we have another COVID nursing home death scandal brewing? In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing intense criticism and calls to resign for cooking the books in the states COVID nursing home death toll. He’s also facing scores of allegations of sexual misconduct from former aides and staffers. Top Democrats from the Empire State are calling for him to resign. So far, he’s refused to do so. The gears of impeachment are starting to turn in Albany, but there could be a COVID death toll scandal occurring in Michigan. Reporter Charlie LeDuff wanted to know the number of...

Amid Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment allegations, and the scandal over his administration hiding the disgustingly high number of nursing home and group home deaths, few are talking about the elephant in the room. The big scandal isn’t that Cuomo is a creep, because everyone knew that already. The scandal isn’t even that Cuomo lied about nursing home deaths. The real scandal is what lay behind the high nursing home deaths in New York and a handful of other states led by leftist governors such as Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, Minnesota’s Tim Walz, and Pennsylvania’s Tom Wolf. It is the story...