Michigan Democrats Turn on Gretchen Whitmer for Putting COVID Patients in Nursing Homes
Shane Trejo
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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s heavy-handed authoritarian governance has made her a pariah throughout the state, and Democrats are starting to become frustrated with her leadership as a result.
State representative Leslie Love (D-Detroit) is flabbergasted over Whitmer’s order to send coronavirus patients into nursing homes, which has resulted in an untold number of unnecessary deaths by putting the most vulnerable population at needless risk.
“To return seniors into an environment, seniors with the virus still recovering from the virus, into an environment with, well, seniors, just didn’t seem — it’s not a good idea,” Love said.
Whitmer made an executive order in April that mandated seniors diagnosed with COVID-19 to be placed into nursing homes, called “regional hubs,” to be around other healthy seniors. State officials claim that the policy is effective because of distance requirements that are required between the healthy and unhealthy seniors.
“It’s a good move, a good step to make these regional hubs, and I think as we move forward, we have to look at making sure we’re really implementing best practices, looking to other best practices across the state,” Chief Medical Executive Joneigh S. Khaldun said.
Initially, the state wanted to put the sick seniors at the TCF Center in Detroit but that became untenable after the site was shut down. This meant seniors with coronavirus were put into nursing homes among the vulnerable instead.
Love is worried about individuals in nursing homes throughout the state, including her 86-year-old mother, catching the highly-infectious disease.
“That would break my heart because I’ve been on the front lines of this, trying to make sure our seniors — my mother, your mother, anybody else’s mother — does not get sick and die from this, particularly if they’re in a nursing home,” Love said.
Love isn’t the only Democrat lawmaker who is angry with Whitmer over her response to the coronavirus pandemic. State representative Karen Whitsett (D-Detroit) has had contentious words with Whitmer because she dared to credit President Donald Trump after hydroxychloroquine saved her life.
“There’s so much more to this story, and it’s shameful on the Democratic Party,” Whitsett said last month. “Let’s be serious and use some common sense here.”
“The resources we’re supposed to have he told me quite frankly are supposed to come from the Governor and the Governor is not painting the same picture to him or the Vice President,” she added. “I believe this is the Governor. She has decided that she is going to slap me on the wrist by silencing me. It’s a shame that she’s doing this. It’s politics at its best.”
Whitmer’s mismanagement of the coronavirus borders on criminal and should disqualify her from vice presidential contention completely.
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