OP-ED: Pennsylvanians deserve answers
The COVID-19 pandemic proved most deadly to vulnerable populations like our beloved senior citizens. In March of 2021, Gov. Tom Wolf, along with blue-state governors like Andrew Cuomo in New York, made the tragic and flawed decision to order nursing homes to receive COVID-positive patients.
While Wolf and Cuomo implemented policies that greatly endangered our vulnerable populations, governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis followed the science and barred COVID-positive patients from entering nursing homes.
Early last May, I was one of the first elected officials to sound the alarm on Governor Wolf’s deadly directive. Unfortunately, refusing to listen to common sense and widespread condemnation, his disastrous order is still in place.
Since last year, over 12,800 nursing home residents died from COVID in Pennsylvania – more than half of our state’s total COVID fatalities.
For the first few months, the Pennsylvania Department of Health provided no data on COVID cases and deaths in nursing homes. This left the public with no way of knowing which homes were hit hardest by the virus. When the state finally began releasing data on resident cases and deaths, it was incomplete and contained serious errors.
According to an investigation from Spotlight PA, many of the facilities that the state listed as missing data had met their reporting requirements. The facility managers did not know why their data had not been included in state reports.
In January 2021, New York’s Attorney General released a report detailing Governor Cuomo’s failed nursing home cover-up, showing his administration falsified data to undercount COVID nursing home fatalities. Pennsylvanians deserve to know whether the serious reporting discrepancies from Wolf and his administration were likewise part of a cover-up to hide damaging data and obscure the gross negligence of their policies.
Earlier this month, I joined my Pennsylvania congressional colleagues to urge Attorney General Josh Shapiro to investigate Wolf’s handling of nursing homes during the COVID pandemic and the accuracy of nursing home data released by his administration.
Unfortunately, by repeatedly refusing to investigate, Shapiro is blatantly choosing to protect his political ally instead of doing the work the people elected him to do.
Additionally, when former Health Secretary Rachel Levine was questioned on the missing nursing home data during her recent Senate confirmation testimony, she told Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) the discrepancies were due to the state’s electronic death reporting system. But Spotlight PA’s findings contradict Levine’s testimony.
Former Secretary Levine either unwittingly or intentionally provided a misleading answer regarding Pennsylvania’s nursing home reporting issues to the Senate panel. Despite all this, President Biden is rewarding Levine’s incompetence with a promotion by nominating her as the U.S. Assistant Health Secretary.
Thankfully, the Pennsylvania General Assembly is taking action. The House Government Oversight Committee is launching an investigation of its own, and the Pennsylvania Senate’s Committee on Aging asked Auditor General Timothy Defoor to review Wolf’s nursing home policies.
The families and loved ones of Pennsylvania’s nursing home victims deserve the truth about Wolf’s actions and their role in the tragic spread of COVID in Pennsylvania’s nursing homes. Governor Wolf must produce all relevant documents and data related to the reporting discrepancies.
I remain committed to ensuring all information is brought to light to ensure the health and safety of our senior citizens are never again jeopardized by the careless actions of a politician. We must hold accountable anyone whose deadly policies contributed to the deaths of thousands of nursing home patients and anyone who covered up the tragic toll of these failed policies.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler represents Pennsylvania’s 14th Congressional District.