Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz faced intense criticism for placing COVID-19 patients in nursing homes during the height of the pandemic, then doubled down on that decision even as a staggering 81% of the state’s pandemic deaths occurred in nursing homes.
“This was not a mistake,” Minnesota Governor Said in May 2020The North Star State had the highest rate of COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities in the country.
“It’s what everybody was doing,” he said of nursing home policies similar to those that contributed to the downfall of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“It’s not that no one had thought about this. There were complexities in how we dealt with this issue,” he said in his defense in the face of harsh criticism.
Early in the pandemic, more than 80% of the state’s COVID-19 deaths were among nursing home residents, the highest rate of any state. According to the analysis by the nonprofit Equal Opportunity Research Foundation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also warned that nursing home residents are at increased risk of contracting and dying from the coronavirus, with the sick and elderly being the most susceptible.
But the Walz administration rushed to return sick patients to such facilities despite warnings that they could not ensure safe distancing or the necessary levels of precautions. Park Rapids Enterprise said at the time.
The policy has since been removed from the Minnesota state government’s public website. According to Fox NewsI found it using the Wayback Machine.
“Patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 who still require COVID-19 transmission-based precautions may be transferred to a congregate living facility,” the policy states.
“MDH’s recommendation is that patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 may be discharged if clinically indicated and do not require discontinuation of infection prevention precautions or two negative COVID-19 tests prior to discharge.”
The policy is just one of many that Walz has come under fire for since becoming Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.
The governor, known for implementing some of the strictest coronavirus prevention measures, has jailed people who don’t follow his strict guidance and even authorized riot control squads to fire paintballs at residents standing outside their homes, newly surfaced footage shows.
“From overseeing the nation’s largest COVID-19 fraud scheme to requiring neighbors to snitch on each other for violating lockdown orders to forcing hospitalized COVID patients back into nursing home facilities, Tim Walz has proven he is incapable of leadership in times of crisis during a pandemic,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) recently told The Washington Post.
“Like the rest of his term as governor, Walz’s response to the pandemic has been a complete failure.”
In 2020, then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered nursing homes in the state to admit patients suspected of having COVID-19, a decision that exposed his administration to fierce criticism and was a key factor in his downfall. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer also faced backlash over a similar policy.
