19 March 2021: Michigan Governor Whitmer Sued for Hiding Public COVID Nursing Home Death Data

Did Michigan cover up nursing home COVID deaths like New York?

This op-ed by Mackinac Center for Public Policy analyst Steve Delie and Pulizter-Prize winning journalist Charlie LeDuff examines whether Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has covered up any aspect of COVID-19 nursing home deaths in Michigan. The question arises because Governor Whitmer has declined to provide the public data they've sought in connection with COVID-related nursing home resident deaths.

They describe the fundamental problem in their efforts to obtain that data that is unique to Michigan:

Michigan is one of only two states where the governor is exempt from Freedom of Information laws, and the only state where that exemption is written into statute. Thanks to this exemption, the governor has no obligation to produce any records whatsoever, despite making decisions affecting the lives of every Michigander.

Gov. Whitmer has used this veil of secrecy to act with impunity. Her office has almost single-handedly dictated the state’s COVID-19 policies, without disclosing the data she has used to make her decisions. After the Michigan Supreme Court struck down the statute Gov. Whitmer relied on for her emergency authority, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services became the vessel for COVID decision-making. Yet while that department is subject to FOIA, it has not been any more transparent. The state continues to release information about the number of cases and deaths but not the underlying records.

If we were tasked with determining whether Governor Whitmer's 15 April 2020 directive (Executive Order 2020-50) ordering Michigan nursing homes to admit COVID patients being transferred from hospitals without testing to determine if they were still contagious contributed to the deaths of previously unexposed nursing home residents, we would start by seeking the following information:

• Date of admission for all patients transfered to nursing homes from hospitals following their treatment for COVID-19.
• Date of admission to identified individual nursing homes for all deceased patients.
• Date of death according to death certificates indicating COVID-19 as a cause of death.
• Dates COVID-19 test samples were collected from all nursing home residents or staff members who tested positive with an active infection.

Again, this information would provide a starting point for a more detailed analysis from which the progression of fatal COVID-19 infections in nursing homes could be generally mapped. All of this data would be part of the underlying public records of all nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 collected by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

We believe neither Governor Whitmer nor the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services have a legitimate reason for witholding this public data from the public. Just as New York Governor Cuomo nor New York Department of Health Director Howard Zucker did in their acknowledged coverup.