NEW: Auditor General’s Report Reveals COVID Deaths in Long-Term Care Facilities 30% Higher than Reported by Whitmer Administration NEW: Auditor General’s Report Reveals COVID Deaths in Long-Term Care Facilities 30% Higher than Reported by Whitmer Administration - Michigan Rising Action

NEW: Auditor General’s Report Reveals COVID Deaths in Long-Term Care Facilities 30% Higher than Reported by Whitmer Administration

NEW: Auditor General’s Report Reveals COVID Deaths in Long-Term Care Facilities 30% Higher than Reported by Whitmer Administration

January 13, 2022

Lansing, Mich., January 13, 2022 – In April 2020, Gretchen Whitmer signed an ill-fated executive order that required nursing homes to dedicate special units in their facilities for patients who tested positive for COVID-19. The policy unilaterally ordered COVID-positive individuals into a condensed facility housing seniors and other vulnerable populations. Whitmer’s decision resulted in deadly consequences, yet the Governor inexplicably defended her policy and vetoed legislation that would have ended it, despite data showing nearly 2,000 patients and staff died in nursing homes only two months after its adoption.

In early 2021, independent investigations began looking into the undercounting of nursing home deaths and found discrepancies in the numbers reported by the Whitmer administration. Two months before that report, Dana Nessel declined to investigate Whitmer’s nursing home policies and brushed off the concerns as political attacks. Last night, after more than a year of inquiries into nursing homes deaths, it appears the Auditor General’s report on Governor Whitmer’s nursing home policies will reveal that the Whitmer administration under-recorded COVID deaths in long-term care facilities by 30 percent. 

“This report is the beginning of closure and justice for those victimized by Gretchen Whitmer’s lethal nursing home policies,” said Eric Ventimiglia, Executive Director for Michigan Rising Action. Ventimiglia continued, “Under-counting COVID deaths in long-term care facilities by 30 percent is not an accounting error or an honest mistake. Governor Whitmer’s deadly nursing home policy resulted in thousands of Michiganders needlessly losing their lives, and she should be held accountable for attempting to cover it up.”

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