Justice Dept. requests nursing home covid-19 data from four Democratic governors

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Thu, 2020-08-27 13:41 — mike kraft

Justice Dept. requests nursing home covid-19 data from four Democratic governors The department said it suspects the states’ orders “may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents.” Matt Zapotosky Washington Post

The Justice Department on Wednesday requested information on covid-19 in nursing homes from the Democratic governors of four states while asserting that their orders during the pandemic “may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents” — a move that drew some questions as being politically motivated.

In a news release, the Justice Department announced it had sent letters to the governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan seeking the data so it could determine “if the state orders requiring admission of COVID-19 patients to nursing homes is responsible for the deaths of nursing home residents.”

Eric Dreiband, the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, wrote in the missives that officials were weighing whether to initiate investigations under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act but added, “We have not reached any conclusions about this matter.”...

The department asked for a raft of data, including the numbers of residents and nursing home employees who contracted covid-19, the number who died and all state directives on the subject. ...

In a joint statement, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said: “This is nothing more than a transparent politicization of the Department of Justice in the middle of the Republican National Convention. It’s no coincidence the moment the Trump administration is caught weakening the CDC’s COVID-19 testing guidelines to artificially lower the number of positive cases, they launched this nakedly partisan deflection.”

The two governors asserted that at least 14 states — including Kentucky, Utah and Arizona — had issued similar nursing guidance but that only Democratic led states were targeted. All of the guidance, the governors asserted, was “based on federal guidelines.” ...

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