OPINION: Jacques: In Michigan, no justice for nursing home victims
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Mar. 21—What is Dana Nessel afraid of finding out?
Michigan's Democratic attorney general is refusing to look into COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes at the request of a group of Republican state senators.
This is an injustice to thousands of families who have unanswered questions about how their relatives were treated and how they died. More than 5,500 individuals fell victim to COVID in these homes — as far as we know.
"What the hell is going on here? Why don't we tell people what we know?" asks Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido, who is on a mission to find justice for impacted families. "There's no closure for loved ones."
During the past year, family members were barred from visiting nursing homes.
More than a third of the state's COVID deaths have taken place in long-term facilities, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's emergency orders dictated how they were to handle the virus. Michigan was one of only five states to instruct elder care centers to take in COVID patients from hospitals, and the state was one of the last to change the misguided policy.
The Health Department refuses to turn over raw data related to these deaths, which has prompted a lawsuit from the Mackinac Center.
It's also good Lucido is on the case. He's tasked his medical examiner to create a committee to look into nursing home deaths. Lucido has created a form on his website for "families of nursing home COVID-19 patients involved in a transfer, incident or deaths" to fill out and turn in to their local enforcement agency.
Reports are pouring in. Lucido says he's already heard from more than 1,300 concerned family members. Macomb is just one of 83 counties in the state. That's why he thinks Nessel should step in and conduct a unified investigation.
In the meantime, if Macomb finds evidence of wrongdoing, that should prompt Nessel to get involved.
This isn't a new fight for Lucido. As a Republican state senator last year, he pushed bipartisan legislation — Whitmer initially vetoed it — to change what he called a "negligent" and "reckless" policy.
Last week, Nessel flippantly responded to Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, in his investigation request. She put off the concerns as "policy disagreements" with Whitmer.
"An investigation by my office is not the mechanism to resolve those disagreements." Nessel wrote.
This is much more than a political clash. Lives were lost.
What's come to light recently in New York underscores why Nessel shouldn't shirk these requests. Her counterpart there — Attorney General Letitia James, also a Democrat — issued a 76-page report in January that found the state had underreported COVID nursing homes deaths by more than 50%, in addition to other wrongs. Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had issued a similar order to Whitmer, but reversed course in May — long before Whitmer did.
James started tracking incidents at nursing homes back in April. She set up a hotline for concerned family members. Nessel has done nothing of the sort.
Last year, Nessel agreed to a separate request from Runestad to look into the Health Department's shady contact tracing deal with a Democratic-aligned firm.
If that was worth Nessel's time, the nursing home deaths certainly should be.
Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques
