Posted on 03/24/2021 7:36:35 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
MADISON, WI — State and federal lawmakers are demanding answers from Gov. Tony Evers’ administration about its alarming undercount of COVID-19 deaths at Wisconsin’s nursing homes.
Last week, reports surfaced that the Evers’ Department of Health Services failed to adequately count nearly 1,000 COVID deaths among long-term care residents, the most vulnerable population. DHS for months had reported 26 percent of nursing home residents died from the virus, but over the past couple of weeks the agency quietly raised the death rate to 45 percent.
The revised numbers followed questions about the Evers administration’s failure to fully vaccinate residents in Wisconsin’s assisted living facilities.
“Recent reports uncovering extensive data shortfalls by the Evers administration in clarifying long-term care COVID-19 deaths are troubling,” said U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) in a joint press release with all five Wisconsin Republican House members. “The Evers administration’s failure to accurately classify these deaths may have impeded the State’s ability to target medical resources toward long-term care facilities and better inform Wisconsin’s vaccination program, possibly costing lives.”
Fitzgerald and his colleagues note that most states have been able to handle updating COVID-19 data in real-time, something Evers’ DHS has had all kinds of problems doing.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican, recently apologized after he announced an estimated 165 coronavirus deaths went unreported. Many of those deaths occurred at nursing homes. Justice called for an investigation. The governor has been slammed nationally in media accounts for his state’s data problems.
“We’ve got to do better. We are disrespecting great West Virginians,” Justice said Friday.
There’s been no apology from Wisconsin’s Democratic governor for the 1,000 deaths that for so long went unreported, and no talk of an investigation — from the governor.
But there have been several calls from Republican lawmakers for real answers from the Evers administration.
“We need to understand why DHS is taking so long to provide accurate information and whether this lack of transparency is intentional or simply incompetence,” said state Sen. Pat Testin (R-Stevens Point), chairman of the Senate’s Health Committee.
Testin and state Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) have asked the Legislative Audit Committee to investigate.
Evers on Monday blamed local officials for the data problems.
“Our local folks got a lot of death certifications and death investigations that just had a street name on it, how do we know that’s a nursing home?” Evers said during a vaccination site visit Monday in Milwaukee. “It takes days to process a death, the paperwork….those things take time to resolve.” He said local health departments didn’t properly fill out addresses of individuals who died from COVID-19 compilations, according to CBS58.
U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Janesville) said the Evers administration’s handling and defensiveness sound a lot like another high profile case involving deaths of nursing home residents.
“While national attention has focused on (New York) Governor (Andrew) Cuomo’s failure to protect seniors in New York, deaths in Wisconsin long-term care facilities have been underreported… (T)he Evers administration has operated under inaccurate and misleading data for months,” the congressman said.
Thanks for telling us. I live in Oshkosh. I didn’t know about that.
Seems WI and MI are targeted for a total fake news and statistics news take over. Bus loads of migrants will be arriving shortly you have been deemed worthy
Democrats cannot do one, single solitary thing, correctly.
For all their bluster about their education and whatever other BS they toss, they are completely incompetent.
Toss in their arrogance, malice and aloofness and they truly are dangerous.
So much talk from the Ledt about how if the Red States seceded they’d collapse. Amazing how the Dem run cities and states are complete disasters.
But fear not...the amazing crime fighters at the Department of Just Us will be all over this.
Just as they're all over the 2016 conspirators,Tara Reid,the hard drive...
Sadly, I see that, too. :(
DHS for months had reported 26 percent of nursing home residents died from the virus,
As of 2012, which is the most recent stat I could quickly find, the state of WI had 51,795 licensed residential care beds statewide.
So that gives an idea, anyway.
BTW, I’m not convinced governors were/are cooking the numbers down.
I think there’s a decent chance they were and are inflating the number of deaths due to WuFlu.
We need a census done of every residential care death, no matter where it occurred, in the country since at least March of 2020.
No assumptions.
And let the chips fall where they may.
Agreed!
My Dad died in a long-term care facility during this cluster-farkle and I made d@mn sure his death was listed from his cancer and that he was NOT a, ‘Covid gimme more cash for Government-Inflicted Death’ statistic!
Still makes me SO angry! Grrrr!
BTW, I’m not convinced governors were/are cooking the numbers down.
I think there’s a decent chance they were and are inflating the number of deaths due to WuFlu.
That said, folks were trying to explain the difference between NYCs 4500 typical deaths in a month and 19,000 deaths that month as mis-categorizations.
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