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Pennsylvanians Deserve Answers, Not Silence

March 21, 2021
Blog Post

For almost a year, I and other members of the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation have been asking the Wolf Administration for answers as to why residents in long-term care facilities and nursing homes were not protected against COVID-19.

As the world has grappled with the virus, we quickly learned that senior citizens and those with underlying health conditions were at the highest risk for serious health impacts, including death. Over 50 percent of Pennsylvania's deaths attributable to COVID-19 have been residents of senior living or long-term care facilities.

Sadly, this trend is true across the nation. The COVID Tracking Project, reports that nearly 35 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the United States have been residents of senior living facilities. The impact is genuinely disproportionate, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that less than half of one percent of the nation's population.

That Gov. Wolf and his administration refuse to take responsibility and provide answers is unacceptable. Residents in long-term care facilities and nursing homes are not just statistics on a page. They are grandparents, parents, neighbors, and friends.

On March 18, 2020, guidance issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Health required nursing homes to allow new admissions and re-admissions of individuals who had received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. This allowed the contagion to spread like wildfire in senior living facilities, creating heartache for too many families.

Pennsylvanians should not forget that while Dr. Levine was forcing nursing homes to admit COVID-19 positive patients, she removed her own mother from a similar facility and had her checked into a hotel. By doing so, she silently acknowledged that her own order was dangerous; her behavior was devastating to the families who do not have the privilege to remove their loved ones from elderly care facilities.

Shockingly, Dr. Levine has faced no repercussions and instead, President Biden is rewarding Dr. Levine's gross negligence by nominating her to be the Assistant Secretary of Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her confirmation was advanced by Senate Democrats on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee last week. We need someone serving in government that puts the needs of the people first, not themselves.

This week, Sen. Pat Toomey and I led a letter to Pennsylvania's Acting Secretary of Health Allison Beam posing a number of questions about how the Department led by Dr. Levine failed to protect residents of senior living facilities during the pandemic and how the Department failed to address long-standing issues to improve oversight of nursing homes. Read our full letter.

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Additionally, I joined my colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee in sending a letter to Dr. Levine, asking her to clarify her February testimony to the Senate HELP Committee, regarding the incomplete and inaccurate nursing death data. In her testimony, Dr. Levine gave answers which conflicted with public reporting by Spotlight PA.

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Every time Wolf and his administration are asked a question, the answer is simply accepted.

The fact of the matter is Gov. Wolf and Sec. Dr. Levine's order requiring nursing homes to accept patients with COVID-19 led to deaths in senior living facilities. What actions, if any, did Wolf and Levine take at the onset of the pandemic to prevent these tragedies? Why did Dr. Levine ignore calls to address long-standing issues in Pennsylvania's nursing homes which pre-dated the pandemic? The results of their incompetence are tragic.

Dr. Levine should not be confirmed by the United States Senate because of the March 18, 2020 guidance from her department, her failure to improve oversight and care in nursing home facilities and the abysmal preparation and execution of the beginning stages of the vaccine rollout.

Pennsylvanians deserve answers.