At what point is the Whitmer administration going to provide transparency?
June 15, 2020
10 Days Since Gov. Whitmer’s Last COVID Update and Still No Data on Nursing Home Deaths
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s last press conference update on the coronavirus pandemic was ten days ago on June 5. Michigan is under a state of emergency until June 19 and Whitmer’s administration has still not disclosed the number of nursing home deaths related to COVID-19 in the state.
Last week, Bridge Michigan reported that state health officials intended “to finally release this week the number of confirmed coronavirus deaths” in nursing homes but no data has been posted to the state’s website. The current data on the site only reflects the number of cases (and no deaths) in skilled nursing facilities and doesn’t currently include any data for other long-term care facilities.
Over two weeks ago, MLive reported that the state’s Chief Medical Executive, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun “acknowledged she’s frustrated that the state doesn’t have more data publicly available yet, but stressed the state is still in the process of collecting and cleaning data from nursing homes and other long term care facilities.”
Whitmer and her administration say they are using ‘data’ to inform decisions and determine that their actions have saved lives. How do we know if the most vulnerable population in nursing homes and long-term care facilities are and were protected if the data surrounding them simply doesn’t exist? The state has known for over a month it was important to release this data given the national numbers showing large percentages of COVID deaths associated with vulnerable populations in long-term care. At what point is the Whitmer administration going to provide transparency? – Tori Sachs, executive director of Michigan Rising Action.