***** PRESS RELEASE *****
July 7, 2020
Vacaville, Ca
For immediate release
CONTACT: CINDY SHEEHAN
CINDYSHEEHANSSOAPBOX@GMAIL.COM
Concerned individuals and activists from all over the U.S. have joined forces in horrified opposition to the policy of many states which sent recovering coronavirus patients to be housed in Skilled Nursing Facilities (SKF). The exact numbers are difficult to pin down, but according to media reports, tens of thousands of our elders have been needlessly, recklessly, and wantonly murdered by state governors and their health departments. On June 27, 2020, the New York Times ran an article with the title: 43% of U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Are Linked to Nursing Homes
From the beginning of the awareness of coronavirus here in the U.S., we were told by our local, state, and federal governments that schools had to be hastily closed and businesses had to be immediately shuttered to “protect the most vulnerable among us, our elders.” In direct contravention of this “shelter-in-place” overreach, the governors of at least these states: New York, California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Jersey, Massachussetts, and Michigan, ordered Skilled Nursing Facilities to admit patients recovering from Covid-19.
Justice for Covid-19 Eldercide was founded as a truly grassroots effort to investigate these crimes and demand justice for the Grey Lives that were put in horrible situations where not even their loved ones could be with them when they passed.
Our questions to the governors of the most affected states include:
“What kind of callous society allows the deaths of tens of thousands of elders to occur, and then allows the perpetrators of the crimes to go unpunished?
“Why, if many hospitals were being closed, staff being furloughed (including medical staff), and the ‘makeshift’ hospitals being folded up without seeing any patients, were coronavirus patients even placed in SKF?”
“Exactly how many residents of SKF were compromised and died by these incomprehensible and vile orders?”
“How much in Social Security, Medicare, and Pension benefits are being saved by this apparently pre-meditated Eldercide?”
Remarks from some members of the committee include:
The State of California is one of the places where it’s been proven that the Governor, Gavin Newsom ordered recovering Covid-19 patients into SKF. Two of the founders of Justice for Covid-19 Eldercide are from California:
Noted peace and justice activist Cindy Sheehan convened the Committee of Concern and had this to say from her home in Northern California:
“It shouldn’t matter whether you believe that Covid-19 exists or not, what the governors of many states in the US did ordering SKF to take ill patients is reprehensible, immoral, and, from what I understand, premeditated murder and every person, regardless of age, should be outraged. Government officials must be held accountable for their actions.”
Mary Vogt, concerned citizen and Justice for Covid-19 Eldercide web designer and tech wizard stated from her Northern California home:
“I joined Justice For COVID-19 Eldercide because I want to make sure that officials who made the decision to put our elderly in harm’s way are held accountable for the resulting tragedy.”
The state of Pennsylvania whose Governor Tom Wolf also instituted this policy through his Health Department is represented on the Committee by long time activist Dorothy Reilly who had this to say from her home in Reading PA:
“This is mass murder that took place in several states and those who mandated that Covid patients be moved into nursing homes (governors and their Secretaries of Health) should all be arrested and charged with mass murder.”
As perhaps the worst hit state by SKF coronavirus deaths in the US, this is what our representative from the state, Lynn Petrovich has discovered from her thorough research:
Over one half of NJ’s death from the novel Corona-virus was in the most vulnerable population: The elderly in nursing homes (6,000), long-term care facilities, and veteran homes (104). Per capita, NJ had the most deaths in the US.
Apparently veterans could survive D-Day or the Battle of the Bulge….but not NJ nursing homes.
According to a consultant’s report (Manatt Report dated 06/02/20) commissioned by the Governor and funded by taxpayers to the tune of $500,000 which was completed over a 3 week period, where no in-person interviews or on-site inspections were undertaken, the 100 page Report (that’s $5,000 per page,) noted of NJ nursing homes, where the bulk of deaths occurred:
(1) Seventy-Four percent were for-profit facilities which may “change ownership multiple times in a single week” (and profit annually by about 12% to 20%);
(2) Worked to obscure management responsibilities to patients;
(3) Brokered in “paper [Medicaid] beds” (traded empty beds, but Federally-guaranteed revenue, for profit);
(4) Took patients (Covid-positive or untested) to co-habitat with current residents, as recommended by government policies.
Why? Because revenue is largely made up of Federal Medicaid and Medicare programs with little to no oversight into how funds are actually being used to care for patients.
It is clear that NJ’s Governor issued policies and mandates which resulted in lack of accountability and oversight to protect the most vulnerable. Couple that with unprecedented prohibition of family members from having any voice or contact to advocate for their loved ones. The result was horrific torture and unbelievable death and destruction.
And one final comment from peace activist and Green Party member Anita Stewart from Tampa, Florida:
“To house our elders in medical facilities with infected patients during what the establishment has identified as a “pandemic” is one of the worst crimes against humanity. Families and insurance companies are paying billions of dollars to these facilities to keep their family members safe.”
We at Justice For COVID-19 Eldercide are working on plans to put governors and other officials on notice that their crimes will not go unnoticed and that our elders will not have died in vain.
We must speak out and rise up for those who have weak voices, or now, no voice at all.
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