19 January 2022: Opinion - Federal Investigation of COVID Nursing Home Deaths Needed

COVID nursing home deaths deserve a federal investigation

Janice Dean penned this op-ed piece calling for a federal investigation of COVID nursing home deaths. In the article, she specifically references Andrew M. Cuomo's actions in New York, where her mother-in-law and father-in-law both died of COVID in nursing homes during the period when Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect and Michigan's now confirmed COVID nursing home deaths undercount scandal, which echoes Cuomo's attempted cover-up, before calling for a federal investigation.

It’s time for all of us to ask for a full, bipartisan federal investigation into all these states that acted so recklessly. If I’m a betting woman, what happened in New York and Michigan more than likely happened in Pennsylvania, California and New Jersey. We need to find out and raise our voices to demand the truth.

Elections have consequences and there’s never been a better time to ask for accountability.

Our loved ones deserve that for unknowingly risking their lives. It’s the least we can do in their memory to make sure this never happens again to another person or the family that loved them.

Based on what we know today, New Jersey certainly falls in that category, which we know from how the Murphy administration operated state-run nursing homes for veterans. Pennsylvania is a strong contender for similar abuses as what happened in New York, Michigan, and New Jersey. We think including California with these other states is a stretch because unlike these other states, the Newsom administration didn't sustain its version of Cuomo's deadly directive for more than a few days.

Regardless, federal investigations of COVID nursing home deaths in New York, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania are warranted, because the policies the governors in these states put into place that exposed nursing home residents to the risk of deadly coronavirus infections would constitute criminally negligent homicide or manslaughter under federal law. In New York and Michigan, we view the undercounts of the COVID deaths that resulted in each state's nursing homes and long term care facilties as presenting evidence of fraud intended to cover-up the more serious crimes.