New York and New Jersey required nursing homes to admit patients who had tested positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, Florida prohibited nursing homes from admitting such patients. The different results of these different policies are exactly what you would expect. And in my opinion, what New York and New Jersey did constitutes mass murder.

By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)

May 14, 2020

New York and New Jersey required nursing homes to admit patients who had tested positive for COVID-19.

NPR reported:

New York and New Jersey both have ordered nursing homes to admit patients regardless of their COVID-19 status.

In my opinion, this policy constitutes mass murder.

Nursing home patients are elderly. And they have major health conditions. No one is more vulnerable to dying from COVID-19 than people in nursing homes.

Ordering nursing homes to admit patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 is an extremely mean, dumb, stupid, irrational, irresponsible, and insane thing to do.

Florida did the opposite. It prohibited patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 from being put in nursing homes.

The Palm Beach Post reported:

Coronavirus Florida: DeSantis: Florida nursing homes safer than other states

With COVID-19 cases ravaging nursing homes across the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis went on the defensive Wednesday, insisting Florida has done more to protect the elderly than most other states.

Pointing to charts that showed that Florida has had far fewer deaths per capita than New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and even Colorado, DeSantis insisted that the state’s strategy to protect those most at risk for the deadly disease has worked.

“Florida’s approach was to avoid introducing the disease into long-term care facilities,” he said at news conference from the Capitol. “We drew a firm red line.”

State health officials on Wednesday reported that 776 nursing home residents and staff have died of COVID-19, including 83 in Palm Beach County. But, DeSantis insisted the number is low, considering Florida is the third most populous state in the nation and has a high concentration of senior citizens.

Criticizing New York, which he also blames for bringing the coronavirus into Florida, DeSantis said the Empire State initially required nursing homes to take COVID-19-infected patients from hospitals to free up needed critical care beds.

That allowed the virus to spread among New York’s most frail citizens, he said.

In contrast, DeSantis prohibited Florida hospitals from discharging patients with the disease to the state’s 4,400 long-term care facilities, which are home to 150,000 residents and employ 200,000 people.

That policy, he said, is one of the key reasons an average of only two elder-care residents per 100,000 people have died in Florida since the pandemic began in mid-March. The actual number is 3.5 per 100,000.

In New Jersey, out of every 100,000 people in the state, 51 nursing home resident have died. In New York, nearly 27 have died. Even Colorado, which has had a comparatively low 1,067 deaths, more than 10 nursing home residents have died per capita.

And as a result, Florida’s rate of death in nursing homes is far, far, lower than New York’s or New Jersey’s.

The Palm Beach Post reported the following rates of elder-care resident deaths per 100,000 people:

Florida: 3.5

New York: nearly 27

New Jersey: 51

Florida did a far, far better job than New York and New Jersey.

And I still maintain my claim that what New York and New Jersey did constitutes mass murder.

Note from Daniel Alman: I’d like to recommend that you visit Whatfinger News. It’s a really awesome website.