Wednesday, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) discussed the letter being sent to five Democratic governors across the United States demanding answers on why they ignored protocols and forced coronavirus patients into nursing homes, leading to thousands of deaths.
Scalise on FNC’s “Fox & Friends” highlighted that a large portion of nursing home deaths came from the five states that “violated and contradicted” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) guidelines. He called for the governors to testify and explain why they went against the safety guidelines with the most vulnerable group of people.
“We’re still trying to get more information, but look, I mean, 40% of all the nursing homes deaths in America came down to five states who violated and contradicted the CMS guidelines that were out that were very clear that told states how to properly handle nursing home patients who were COVID-positive and look, most of those states, 45 of those states, followed the guideline, Republican and Democrat governors alike but five states for whatever reason chose to go a different direction, a dangerous and a deadly direction that ended up killing thousands of nursing homes patients unnecessarily,” Scalise stated. “We’ve been calling for answers. You know, why did they give those orders, why did they go against the safety guidelines that were issued from CMS, and why won’t they give us all the disclosure of the patient information that they were giving and then all of a sudden when we started discovering this they clammed up, and they’re not letting the public see what those numbers really are.”
He added, “[I]n New York what the governor issued an order — he prohibited the nursing homes from even testing COVID-positive patients. He said you can’t even test them. You have to take them back, even if you don’t have the ability to isolate them. And Ainsley, this turned out to be a death sentence for thousands of seniors in each of these states’ nursing homes. It was heartbreaking to see it happen. I’ve asked the governors to come testify and explain why they did this and also, to give us the data that they have. They just stopped reporting it to the public.”
Scalise later said he has “no doubt” there will be lawsuits related to the nursing home deaths.
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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