Michigan Rising Action is calling for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to “put politics aside and focus on Michigan.”
In an opinion published on May 30 in The Detroit News, Tori Sachs, the executive director for Michigan Rising Action, argued that Whitmer should shift her focus from politics and “raising her national profile” back to the state of Michigan.
“The governor should change her focus from politics to five key issues to help Michigan residents: Protecting people in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, fixing the broken unemployment system, creating an opening plan with clearly defined metrics, providing a plan for schools, and addressing the state’s budget deficit,” Sachs wrote in the piece.
Sachs told The Michigan Star that Whitmer’s top priority should be fixing her policies on nursing home patients with coronavirus. Michigan is currently one of three states that do not track or report data on deaths in nursing homes or residential care facilities that are a result of COVID-19.
A national analysis of data estimates that 42 percent of coronavirus deaths are related to nursing homes or similar care facilities.
“We’ve known from the beginning that elderly were the most susceptible,” Sachs told The Michigan Star.
Nearly 70 percent of all coronavirus deaths in Michigan are those ages 70 years old or older and 87 percent are those 60 years old or older, according to data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Sachs said the top priority should be having separate facilities for coronavirus-positive and coronavirus-negative patients. Current policy allows for the patients to be in the same building, although separated from each other.
“It has to be separated, separate buildings,” Sachs said. “Separate physical buildings.”
Sachs also called for prioritized testing for anyone going into a nursing home, as well as inspections to ensure nursing homes are following protocol about coronavirus.
“The vulnerable residents living in nursing homes cannot afford to wait any longer for the Whitmer administration to enact new safety measures and a holistic plan to stop the spread of COVID-19 to the population who is most at risk of dying from the virus,” she said in the piece.
Sachs added she felt that Whitmer was using the crisis to bolster her bid for the position of vice president. Whitmer has previously said she has had “opening conversations” with Joe Biden’s campaign.
“It’s been clear she’s been using this pandemic to elevate her national profile,” Sachs said, adding that she would like to see more focus on nursing home, as well as education and unemployment. “It’s unfortunate she prioritizes her national profile over those things.”
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Jordyn Pair is a reporter with The Michigan Star. Follow her on Twitter at @JordynPair. Email her at [email protected].
Photo “Tori Sachs” by Michigan Rising Action.
