COVID nursing home deaths claim is campaign trail mainstay

By MARC LEVY
Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for governor, Doug Mastriano, often makes the baseless allegation that Gov. Tom Wolf’s policy of readmitting COVID-19 patients from hospitals to nursing homes caused thousands of deaths. It’s a claim for which no investigator or researcher has provided any evidence. In fact, researchers point to something entirely different. They say nursing home employees ushered in the virus every day to the buildings. Meanwhile, criminal investigators found administrators flouting staffing requirements or infection-control procedures. No Pennsylvania nursing home has leveled a claim like Mastriano’s. And readmissions were routine in every state during the pandemic to keep hospital beds open. Wolf’s office says Mastriano’s claims are “patently false.”