'This was not a mistake,' Walz said about the nursing home policy
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Under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz's watch during the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesota experienced a devastating impact among its most vulnerable, as 80% of COVID-related deaths in the state occurred among residents of long-term care facilities, including nursing homes and assisted living centers.
Critics have taken aim at a policy, also practiced in other states during the pandemic, to allow patients with COVID into nursing homes after they were discharged from hospitals.
The policy in place is no longer available on the public-facing Minnesota government website and had to be acquired by the Wayback Machine.
"Patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 who still require transmission-based precautions for COVID-19 can be transferred to congregate living facilities," the policy, acquired by the Wayback Machine, said.
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign rally with Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
"It is the recommendation of MDH that patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 can be discharged when clinically indicated and neither discontinuation of transmission-based precautions nor the establishment of two negative COVID-19 tests is required prior to hospital discharge," it continued.
At one point, around May 2020, over 80% of the state's COVID-19 deaths were among residents of long-term care facilities.
Despite this data, Walz doubled down on the policy after the fact.
"This was what everyone was doing. This was not a mistake. It wasn't like no one thought about this. There was complexity in how you deal with this," the Democratic governor said in May 2020 while the devastation was ongoing.
According to a report from the Star Tribune, nursing homes perceived they were deprioritized in terms of being provided with personal protective equipment (PPE), which was critical to protecting both staff and patients from getting infected.
Nursing homes believed they were deprioritized during the COVID pandemic, leading to difficulty controlling the spread of infections. (iStock)
The state's Department of Health "informed providers in April that its emergency stockpile of N95 masks was reserved for ‘hospital settings only’ and that they should wait until their supplies had dwindled to ‘zero to three days’ before requesting more gear," the report said.
"As an alternative, the state encouraged nursing homes to consider using nonmedical cloth masks and to ‘connect with local communities for donations,’' it continued.
The issue was widespread during the early stages of the COVID pandemic.
"Nursing home residents aren’t getting half of our resources or half of our attention, yet they account for roughly half the deaths," David Grabowski, a health care policy professor at Harvard Medical School, told The Atlantic in April 2020. "We don’t value their lives as much as other people’s."
Many families complained to local media that they weren't notified about COVID-positive cases in nursing homes and never got to say their goodbyes. Walz's administration discouraged families from taking their loved ones out of nursing homes and bringing them home for visits.
"MDH strongly recommends against families bringing residents of long-term care facilities to their homes during this time. This recommendation applies whether residents have previously been diagnosed with COVID-19 or have recently tested negative for COVID-19," Minnesota's Department of Health's executive order 20-99 said.
In 2020, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed New York nursing homes to accept patients believed to have COVID-19 – a decision that subjected his administration to fierce criticism. (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) (Getty Images)
Other states have faced similar criticism over their nursing home policies.
In 2020, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed New York nursing homes to accept patients believed to have COVID-19 – a decision that subjected his administration to fierce criticism. Cuomo's policy did not allow nursing homes to inquire about a patient's COVID status when making their decision to accept patients.
Hannah Grossman is a Reporter at Fox News Digital.
