PA Health Secretary Moved Mother From Nursing Home to Hotel When Pandemic Hit State [Watch]

By Elizabeth Vaughn | 12:00 PM on May 13, 2020

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AP featured image — This Aug. 3, 2017 photo provided by Human Rights Watch shows Laurel Cline during a visit to her mother Lenora, who has Alzheimer’s disease, in a nursing home in Whittier, Calif. Laurel says her mother, during stays at three different nursing homes in recent years, was sometimes left neglected for hours at a time in her wheelchair after being given antipsychotics. “Instead of seeing what’s wrong with her, they just want to drug her up,” said Cline. (Ed Kashi/Human Rights Watch via AP)

Due to the misguided policy of forcing nursing homes to take back residents with COVID-19, there has been a disproportionately high rate of death among those living in these facilities.

Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, was questioned about why she had moved her mother out of a nursing home to a hotel when COVID-19 hit the state.

A reporter asked, “We’re hearing you moved your mother from a nursing home to a hotel. What message does that send to the thousands of Pennsylvanians whose parents are in nursing homes but maybe are unable to move them out…when the person in charge moves out their own parent.”

Levine, reading from prepared notes replied, “Well my mother is actually a resident of a personal care home — not a nursing home and that is regulated by the Department of Human Services, not the Department of Health. My mother requested — and my sister and I as her children complied to move her to another location during the COVID-19 outbreak. My mother is 95 years old. She is very intelligent and more than competent to make her own decisions.”

WATCH: PA Secretary of Heath admits own mother left senior facility while coronavirus swept nursing homes. Gov Wolf nowhere to be found https://t.co/4LomqtQznA

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 13, 2020

Still, those who don’t quite understand the distinction, such as Republican State Senator Doug Mastriano, are calling for Levine’s resignation. WJAC reported that Mastriano held a rally on the steps of the state’s Capitol building on Monday.

When PA Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, was asked to comment on the call for Levine’s resignation, he said, “She’s done a phenomenal job. I think it’s a tribute to her that Pennsylvania has actually done a better job than our neighboring states on infection rates and death rates.”

According to WJAC, “deaths from these places alone have accounted for 68.6 percent of all deaths in the state as of Tuesday.” The state is expected to issue actual numbers next week.

Many states, particularly those governed by Democrats have adopted this foolish and deadly policy. If politicians think voters will forget by November, they’re nuts.

Formerly Dr. Richard Levine, the state’s top doc since 2017, is the first transgender person appointed to a Pennsylvania Cabinet.