truthout--2020-07-14--Democrats Have Long Dreamed of Turning Texas Blue. Will It Finally Come True?

If Democrats are Charlie Brown — and they could be — Texas is the political football yanked away at the end of every game .
Promising candidacies continue to endure painful yet predictable losses , which clock in close enough to hold on hope for next time .
The polls are teeing them up again in 2020 .
A new CBS News/YouGov survey finds President Donald Trump up one point over former Vice President Joe Biden among Texas voters at 46 % to 45 % .
That ’ s well within the margin of error .
And that poll is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the eight Texas public polls since May shows Biden and Trump in a statistical tie , with Biden up by 0.3 points .
A Real Clear Politics average of five recent polls also rules the race a tie , and FiveThirtyEight ’ s weighted average puts Trump up by only 0.1 points .
A few factors are driving the numbers , including the heavily-criticized response of Republican leadership to the coronavirus pandemic as cases surge across the state .
Houston has turned into the country ’ s most intense hotspot .
In a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only 38 % of Texans approved of Trump ’ s performance .
Though Texas has been over-hyped as a swing state , Democrats have posted numbers unmatched in a generation .
This is sparked by accelerating shifts across a number of key political demographics , such as increases in Hispanic voters .
Perhaps less well documented is an injection of college-educated white voters in the state ’ s most populous cities : Austin , Dallas , Houston and San Antonio .
Texas , however , is a massive state , and flipping it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resources and time , which may be better placed elsewhere .
Besides , the state is not an electoral tipping-point : The race can be won on other more manageable battlegrounds .
Though the Biden campaign has engaged voters across the state , holding virtual roundtables , community meetings and calls , it has so far shown a reluctance to mess with Texas .
In a statement to Salon , the campaign suggested it would let voters make the call for themselves , pointing to Trump ’ s botched response to the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s inability to lead our country during this pandemic , and this fall they will have the opportunity to make a change and send Joe Biden to the White House , ” the campaign said .
Trump Campaign Deputy National Press Secretary Samantha Zager dismissed any speculation out of hand .
“ Democrats like to pretend Texas is on the table , but they know that ’ s a joke — just ask Governor Wendy Davis , Senator Beto O ’ Rourke and President Hillary Clinton , ” she told Salon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to comedically mock the defeats of three recent high-profile candidates .
Zager has a point : Pundits who predicted upsets got three wake-up calls in a row .
But election experts do not point to past results .
They point to current data , and they point to trends .
In that sense , Zager ’ s black-and-white claims belie the troubling reality facing the Trump campaign : The margin of victory shrank considerably between each of those races .
First , Davis ’ 2014 gubernatorial bid drew national attention — and national @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against a 2013 anti-abortion bill .
Davis ultimately lost her race to Republican Greg Abbott by 20 points .
Clinton ’ s candidacy , or perhaps Trump ’ s vulnerabilities in the heavily-Hispanic state , built up more buzz in 2016 .
However , Clinton never got within three points , coming closest in early August on the heels of Trump ’ s disparaging remarks about a Muslim Gold Star family .
When she lost the state by nine points , she became the first Democratic president to come within single digits since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 10 tightest wins that year for Trump .
The gap narrowed again in 2018 with the Senate candidacy of former Rep. Beto O ’ Rourke , a spirited , resolute young politician whose image seemed to capture something central about the generational changes across the state .
He sprung to the national stage only a few months before the election , pulling tens of millions of dollars in donations from around the country .
Though he ran a tight race , O ’ Rourke came up three points short of Republican opponent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : This year ’ s Senate race may be competitive , too .
In the CBS/YouGov poll , Sen. John Cornyn was up six points ( against Royce West ) or eight points ( against MJ Hegar ) against his possible Democratic challengers .
Recent state polling shows that about one-third of Texas voters are still undecided , even about their 18-year incumbent .
Also , the Cook Political Report anticipates that as many as six Republican-held House seats may realistically flip in November .
In other words , at least certain races @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Democrats .
Today , Larry Sabato ’ s Crystal Ball project at the University of Virginia lists Texas as “ leans Republican.
” But the group says that is not a lock .
“ We still think Trump is favored in Texas , ” Kyle Kondik , the site ’ s managing editor , told Salon .
“ But the numbers are what they are.
” “ The state is becoming more competitive , and the Democratic growth is being driven to no small degree by the migration of white voters with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — or at least into the anti-Trump column , ” he continued .
“ We see this kind of trend in highly-educated places across the country , and that includes a lot of suburban congressional districts in Texas.
” “ At this point , I think our best guess would be that the presidential race would look a lot like the Senate race in 2018 — close , but with a Republican edge , ” Kondik added .
“ However , even that would be close for comfort for Republicans , who can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ majority without Texas.
” Sabato ’ s Crystal Ball currently has four states in the “ toss-up ” category : Arizona , Florida , North Carolina and Wisconsin .
Nonetheless , Texas polls have been consistently closer than all four .
Asked whether this trend could nudge Texas into the toss-up column , Kondik said : “ If it still looks like this come Labor Day , quite possibly .
”

Though Texas has been overhyped as a swing state, Democrats have posted numbers unmatched in a generation.
If Democrats are Charlie Brown — and they could be — Texas is the political football yanked away at the end of every game. Promising candidacies continue to endure painful yet predictable losses, which clock in close enough to hold on hope for next time.
The polls are teeing them up again in 2020. A new CBS News/YouGov survey finds President Donald Trump up one point over former Vice President Joe Biden among Texas voters at 46% to 45%. That’s well within the margin of error.
And that poll is not an outlier. An average of the eight Texas public polls since May shows Biden and Trump in a statistical tie, with Biden up by 0.3 points. A Real Clear Politics average of five recent polls also rules the race a tie, and FiveThirtyEight’s weighted average puts Trump up by only 0.1 points.
A few factors are driving the numbers, including the heavily-criticized response of Republican leadership to the coronavirus pandemic as cases surge across the state. Houston has turned into the country’s most intense hotspot. In a recent Dallas Morning News/UT Tyler poll, only 38% of Texans approved of Trump’s performance.
Though Texas has been over-hyped as a swing state, Democrats have posted numbers unmatched in a generation. This is sparked by accelerating shifts across a number of key political demographics, such as increases in Hispanic voters. Perhaps less well documented is an injection of college-educated white voters in the state’s most populous cities: Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
Texas, however, is a massive state, and flipping it would likely require an immense well of resources and time, which may be better placed elsewhere. Besides, the state is not an electoral tipping-point: The race can be won on other more manageable battlegrounds.
Though the Biden campaign has engaged voters across the state, holding virtual roundtables, community meetings and calls, it has so far shown a reluctance to mess with Texas. In a statement to Salon, the campaign suggested it would let voters make the call for themselves, pointing to Trump’s botched response to the pandemic.
“Texans won’t forget Trump’s inability to lead our country during this pandemic, and this fall they will have the opportunity to make a change and send Joe Biden to the White House,” the campaign said.
Trump Campaign Deputy National Press Secretary Samantha Zager dismissed any speculation out of hand.
“Democrats like to pretend Texas is on the table, but they know that’s a joke — just ask Governor Wendy Davis, Senator Beto O’Rourke and President Hillary Clinton,” she told Salon in an email, in an attempt to comedically mock the defeats of three recent high-profile candidates.
Zager has a point: Pundits who predicted upsets got three wake-up calls in a row. But election experts do not point to past results. They point to current data, and they point to trends.
In that sense, Zager’s black-and-white claims belie the troubling reality facing the Trump campaign: The margin of victory shrank considerably between each of those races.
First, Davis’ 2014 gubernatorial bid drew national attention — and national dollars — after her forceful 13-hour filibuster against a 2013 anti-abortion bill. Davis ultimately lost her race to Republican Greg Abbott by 20 points.
Clinton’s candidacy, or perhaps Trump’s vulnerabilities in the heavily-Hispanic state, built up more buzz in 2016. However, Clinton never got within three points, coming closest in early August on the heels of Trump’s disparaging remarks about a Muslim Gold Star family. When she lost the state by nine points, she became the first Democratic president to come within single digits since the 1990s. It was one of the 10 tightest wins that year for Trump.
The gap narrowed again in 2018 with the Senate candidacy of former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a spirited, resolute young politician whose image seemed to capture something central about the generational changes across the state. He sprung to the national stage only a few months before the election, pulling tens of millions of dollars in donations from around the country. Though he ran a tight race, O’Rourke came up three points short of Republican opponent Ted Cruz.
What’s more: This year’s Senate race may be competitive, too. In the CBS/YouGov poll, Sen. John Cornyn was up six points (against Royce West) or eight points (against MJ Hegar) against his possible Democratic challengers. Recent state polling shows that about one-third of Texas voters are still undecided, even about their 18-year incumbent.
Also, the Cook Political Report anticipates that as many as six Republican-held House seats may realistically flip in November. In other words, at least certain races in Texas are very much in play for Democrats.
Today, Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball project at the University of Virginia lists Texas as “leans Republican.” But the group says that is not a lock.
“We still think Trump is favored in Texas,” Kyle Kondik, the site’s managing editor, told Salon. “But the numbers are what they are.”
“The state is becoming more competitive, and the Democratic growth is being driven to no small degree by the migration of white voters with four-year college degrees into the Democratic Party — or at least into the anti-Trump column,” he continued. “We see this kind of trend in highly-educated places across the country, and that includes a lot of suburban congressional districts in Texas.”
“At this point, I think our best guess would be that the presidential race would look a lot like the Senate race in 2018 — close, but with a Republican edge,” Kondik added. “However, even that would be close for comfort for Republicans, who cannot put together a plausible Electoral College majority without Texas.”
Sabato’s Crystal Ball currently has four states in the “toss-up” category: Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and Wisconsin. Nonetheless, Texas polls have been consistently closer than all four.
Asked whether this trend could nudge Texas into the toss-up column, Kondik said: “If it still looks like this come Labor Day, quite possibly.”
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-07-14--Study Shows 5.4 Million Have Lost Insurance Amid Pandemic

Amid the worst public health crisis in a century and a devastating economic downturn that has thrown tens of millions out of work , more than five million people in the U.S. lost their health insurance in just three months this year , shattering the previous record set during the entire annual period from 2008 to 2009 .
The estimate by advocacy group Families USA that at least 5.4 million Americans became uninsured between February and May was viewed by progressive activists and lawmakers as the latest evidence of the fundamental brokenness of a privatized system that ties healthcare to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for All is an urgent necessity .
“ If we had Medicare for All , nobody would be losing their healthcare , ” Rep. Pramila Jayapal ( D-Wash. ) , lead House sponsor of the Medicare for All Act of 2019 , tweeted late Monday in response to the new figures .
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed , a public health expert and former Michigan gubernatorial candidate , echoed Jayapal .
“ 5.4 million Americans would still be covered if we had Medicare for All , ” El-Sayed tweeted .
According to a report ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , massive job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a sharp rise in uninsurance as millions of people were unable to move to alternative sources of coverage such as the Affordable Care Act ( ACA ) marketplaces , Medicaid , or a spouse ’ s employer-provided insurance .
States that have not expanded Medicaid under the ACA saw a much larger rise in uninsurance , leaving millions of vulnerable people on the hook for exorbitant healthcare costs .
“ These recent increases in the number of uninsured adults are 39 % higher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Families USA found .
“ The highest previous increase took place over the one-year period from 2008 to 2009 , when 3.9 million nonelderly adults became uninsured.
” Nearly half of the newly uninsured , according to the group , live in just five states : California , Texas , Florida , New York , and North Carolina .
Despite the alarming spike in the number of uninsured Americans in such a short period , Families USA senior fellow Steve Dorn noted that congressional Covid-19 relief efforts have not even “ attempted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” While Families USA endorsed House Democratic proposals to make the ACA more affordable , boost COBRA subsidies , and expand Medicaid , progressives have recommended broader and more ambitious solutions to a healthcare crisis that is only expected to get worse as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surge across the country .
Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders ( I-Vt. ) , for instance , introduced legislation in April that would expand Medicare to cover all healthcare costs for the uninsured and all out-of-pocket expenses for the privately insured for the duration of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to work together to make sure that anyone in America who is sick — regardless of their income or immigration status — can seek the medical treatment they need during this national emergency , ” Sanders said at the time .
“ With an estimated 35 million Americans in danger of losing their employer-provided health insurance over the coming weeks and months , this legislation is needed now more than ever.
” In a series of tweets Monday , Rep. Ro Khanna ( D-Calif. ) urged Democratic leaders to “ stop talking about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ serious about truly universal healthcare.
” “ That means everyone in , nobody out .
Also known as Medicare for All , ” Khanna wrote .
“ Covid-19 and mass unemployment have exposed the cruel folly of tying healthcare to employment .
Talking about ‘ affordable ’ healthcare isn ’ t enough .
We can and must do much better : recognize healthcare as a human right and implement Medicare for All ASAP .
Democrats must lead .
”

Progressives note that the number under Medicare for All would be zero.
Amid the worst public health crisis in a century and a devastating economic downturn that has thrown tens of millions out of work, more than five million people in the U.S. lost their health insurance in just three months this year, shattering the previous record set during the entire annual period from 2008 to 2009.
The estimate by advocacy group Families USA that at least 5.4 million Americans became uninsured between February and May was viewed by progressive activists and lawmakers as the latest evidence of the fundamental brokenness of a privatized system that ties healthcare to employment — and yet another reason Medicare for All is an urgent necessity.
“If we had Medicare for All, nobody would be losing their healthcare,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), lead House sponsor of the Medicare for All Act of 2019, tweeted late Monday in response to the new figures.
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a public health expert and former Michigan gubernatorial candidate, echoed Jayapal. “5.4 million Americans would still be covered if we had Medicare for All,” El-Sayed tweeted.
According to a report (pdf) released Monday by Families USA, massive job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a sharp rise in uninsurance as millions of people were unable to move to alternative sources of coverage such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces, Medicaid, or a spouse’s employer-provided insurance.
States that have not expanded Medicaid under the ACA saw a much larger rise in uninsurance, leaving millions of vulnerable people on the hook for exorbitant healthcare costs.
“These recent increases in the number of uninsured adults are 39% higher than any annual increase ever recorded,” Families USA found. “The highest previous increase took place over the one-year period from 2008 to 2009, when 3.9 million nonelderly adults became uninsured.”
Nearly half of the newly uninsured, according to the group, live in just five states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, and North Carolina.
Despite the alarming spike in the number of uninsured Americans in such a short period, Families USA senior fellow Steve Dorn noted that congressional Covid-19 relief efforts have not even “attempted to restore or preserve comprehensive health insurance.”
Companion Video: The #COVID19 Pandemic And Resulting Economic Crash Have Caused The Greatest Health Insurance Losses In American History. pic.twitter.com/iYkrGJvKVL — Families USA (@FamiliesUSA) July 13, 2020
While Families USA endorsed House Democratic proposals to make the ACA more affordable, boost COBRA subsidies, and expand Medicaid, progressives have recommended broader and more ambitious solutions to a healthcare crisis that is only expected to get worse as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surge across the country.
Jayapal and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), for instance, introduced legislation in April that would expand Medicare to cover all healthcare costs for the uninsured and all out-of-pocket expenses for the privately insured for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have got to work together to make sure that anyone in America who is sick — regardless of their income or immigration status — can seek the medical treatment they need during this national emergency,” Sanders said at the time. “With an estimated 35 million Americans in danger of losing their employer-provided health insurance over the coming weeks and months, this legislation is needed now more than ever.”
Seriously, how can anyone not support Medicare for All after reading this? https://t.co/kw7y0aHWxL — Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) July 13, 2020
In a series of tweets Monday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) urged Democratic leaders to “stop talking about ‘affordable’ healthcare and start getting serious about truly universal healthcare.”
“That means everyone in, nobody out. Also known as Medicare for All,” Khanna wrote. “Covid-19 and mass unemployment have exposed the cruel folly of tying healthcare to employment. Talking about ‘affordable’ healthcare isn’t enough. We can and must do much better: recognize healthcare as a human right and implement Medicare for All ASAP. Democrats must lead.”
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-07-14--Republicans Seek Immunity for Employers From Lawsuits Related to Pandemic

Congressional leaders are squaring off over the next pandemic relief bill in a debate over whom Congress should step up to protect : front-line workers seeking more safeguards from the ravages of COVID-19 or beleaguered employers seeking relief from lawsuits .
Democrats want to enact an emergency standard meant to bolster access to protective gear for health care and other workers and to bar employers from retaliating against them for airing safety concerns .
Republicans seek immunity for employers from lawsuits related to the pandemic , an effort they say would give businesses the confidence to return to normal .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ this month .
The debate reflects a deepening schism between the major political parties , with Democrats focused on protecting lives and Republicans focused on protecting livelihoods .
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed frustration over efforts to pass an emergency worker-protection standard , which keeps running into GOP resistance .
“ They ’ re saying ‘ Let ’ s give immunity — no liability — for employers , ’ ” Pelosi said .
“ We ’ re saying the best protection for the employer is to protect the workers.
” Nearly 98,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus , according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that the agency acknowledges is an undercount .
KHN and The Guardian have identified more than 780 who have died and have told the personal stories of 139 of them .
In May , the House passed a $ 3 trillion relief bill that would require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to put in place an emergency standard that would call on employers to create a plan based , in part , on CDC or OSHA guidance to protect workers from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers and also those “ at occupational risk of exposure to COVID19.
” The measure would allow workers to bring protective gear “ if not provided by the employer.
” Similar rules in place in California health care workers have come under fire for offering little added protection .
In action , the new measure would allow OSHA inspectors to request to review an employers ’ plan and hold them accountable for following it , said David Michaels , former U.S. assistant secretary of Labor and OSHA administrator , who has called for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ currently optional , not required .
“ Many employers want to be law-abiding , ” Michaels said , “ and they know they risk enforcement and possibly a monetary fine if they don ’ t attempt to do this.
” Top Democrats , including presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden , have called for better worker protections , while GOP leaders have called for stronger employer protections .
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has insisted that the next pandemic relief bill include immunity for employers against coronavirus-related lawsuits .
“ If we do another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in it for doctors , for hospitals , for nurses , for businesses , for universities , for colleges , ” McConnell said July 1 .
“ Nobody knew how to deal with the coronavirus , ” he said , and unless they ’ ve committed gross negligence or intentional harm , those parties should be protected from an “ epidemic of lawsuits.
” He has proposed a five-year period of immunity from December 2019 through 2024 .
( McConnell ’ s office declined to comment for this story . )
Such a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grieving family members such as Florence Dotson , the mother of 51-year-old certified nursing assistant Maurice Dotson , who died in April .
Her son cared for nursing home residents with COVID-19 in Austin , Texas , and did not have proper personal protective equipment ( PPE ) , her suit alleges .
He later died of complications from the virus .
Another lawsuit alleges that an anonymous New York nurse requested but was denied proper PPE when she was assigned to care for a patient in intensive care with COVID-19 symptoms but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after death .
The nurse , who contracted COVID-19 shortly after , is seeking $ 1 million in damages .
U.S. workers in every industry have filed more than 13,300 COVID-related complaints with OSHA , records show , demonstrating widespread concern over their lack of protection at work .
Twenty-three complaints reference a fear of retaliation , including among hospital workers who say they were pressured to work while sick .
The agency has closed investigations into those complaints but is investigating 6,600 more open complaints .
OSHA has so far issued one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confirmed .
Employers are also struggling , evidenced by layoffs and an 11 % unemployment rate , which the Congressional Budget Office projects will hit 16 % in the coming weeks .
States have taken some matters in their own hands during months of federal inaction .
At least 25 states have created some degree of legal immunity for doctors or facilities , through new laws or executive orders , according to the National Conference of State Legislatures .
Officials in Virginia and Oregon have taken steps to enact their own heightened worker-protection @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effort to pass an OSHA rule to protect workers from infectious diseases dates to 2010 , when regulators saw the need to better protect health care workers after the H1N1 flu pandemic .
Michaels , the former OSHA director under President Barack Obama , said the effort has stalled out under the Trump administration .
Trump administration OSHA officials have defended their track record , saying adequate rules are in place to protect workers .
But a similar push succeeded in California in 2009 .
State officials passed a plan requiring health care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health care workers from airborne viruses .
The California measure went further , requiring hospitals and nursing homes to stockpile or be prepared to supply workers with an N95 respirator — or an even more protective device — if treating patients with a virus like COVID-19 .
Workplace safety experts in California , though , said it hasn ’ t worked as intended .
As more than 17,600 health care workers have become sick and 99 have died in the state , it ’ s become apparent that health care employers did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Knight , executive director of Worksafe , a nonprofit focused on workplace safety .
“ This was just a massive missed opportunity and one that cost people their lives , ” Knight said .
“ People are just dying … with frightening regularity.
” California nurses who died after caring for COVID patients without an N95 respirator include Sandra Oldfield , 52 , who wore a less-protective surgical mask while caring for a patient who wasn ’ t initially thought to have the virus .
A complaint to OSHA about a lack of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her hospital , Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center , in violation of the state ’ s standard , the state labor department confirmed .
However , alternative guidance is now in place because of global PPE shortages , according to the California Department of Industrial Relations .
Kaiser Permanente , which is not affiliated with KHN , confirmed that the patient was not initially thought to have COVID-19 and that the company has followed state , local and CDC guidance on patient screening and use of PPE .
Hospital officials , who have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , said the plans that were in place did not account for the scope of the current pandemic and global supply chain breakdown .
“ It is not for a lack of caring or trying to keep our workers safe , ” said Gail Blanchard-Saiger , vice president for labor and employment with the California Hospital Association .
Kaiser Health News ( KHN ) is a national health policy news service .
It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente .

Amid COVID-19, Congress faces off on whether to protect workers or protect employers.
Congressional leaders are squaring off over the next pandemic relief bill in a debate over whom Congress should step up to protect: front-line workers seeking more safeguards from the ravages of COVID-19 or beleaguered employers seeking relief from lawsuits.
Democrats want to enact an emergency standard meant to bolster access to protective gear for health care and other workers and to bar employers from retaliating against them for airing safety concerns.
Republicans seek immunity for employers from lawsuits related to the pandemic, an effort they say would give businesses the confidence to return to normal. The Senate is scheduled to reconvene later this month.
The debate reflects a deepening schism between the major political parties, with Democrats focused on protecting lives and Republicans focused on protecting livelihoods.
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed frustration over efforts to pass an emergency worker-protection standard, which keeps running into GOP resistance.
“They’re saying ‘Let’s give immunity — no liability — for employers,’” Pelosi said. “We’re saying the best protection for the employer is to protect the workers.”
Nearly 98,000 health care workers have contracted the novel coronavirus, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that the agency acknowledges is an undercount. KHN and The Guardian have identified more than 780 who have died and have told the personal stories of 139 of them.
In May, the House passed a $3 trillion relief bill that would require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to put in place an emergency standard that would call on employers to create a plan based, in part, on CDC or OSHA guidance to protect workers from COVID-19.
It would cover health care workers and also those “at occupational risk of exposure to COVID19.” The measure would allow workers to bring protective gear “if not provided by the employer.” Similar rules in place in California health care workers have come under fire for offering little added protection.
In action, the new measure would allow OSHA inspectors to request to review an employers’ plan and hold them accountable for following it, said David Michaels, former U.S. assistant secretary of Labor and OSHA administrator, who has called for such a standard. Federal guidance is currently optional, not required.
“Many employers want to be law-abiding,” Michaels said, “and they know they risk enforcement and possibly a monetary fine if they don’t attempt to do this.”
Top Democrats, including presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, have called for better worker protections, while GOP leaders have called for stronger employer protections.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has insisted that the next pandemic relief bill include immunity for employers against coronavirus-related lawsuits.
“If we do another bill, it will have liability protections in it for doctors, for hospitals, for nurses, for businesses, for universities, for colleges,” McConnell said July 1. “Nobody knew how to deal with the coronavirus,” he said, and unless they’ve committed gross negligence or intentional harm, those parties should be protected from an “epidemic of lawsuits.”
He has proposed a five-year period of immunity from December 2019 through 2024. (McConnell’s office declined to comment for this story.)
Such a measure could derail lawsuits already filed by grieving family members such as Florence Dotson, the mother of 51-year-old certified nursing assistant Maurice Dotson, who died in April. Her son cared for nursing home residents with COVID-19 in Austin, Texas, and did not have proper personal protective equipment (PPE), her suit alleges. He later died of complications from the virus.
Another lawsuit alleges that an anonymous New York nurse requested but was denied proper PPE when she was assigned to care for a patient in intensive care with COVID-19 symptoms but who was tested for the virus only after death. The nurse, who contracted COVID-19 shortly after, is seeking $1 million in damages.
U.S. workers in every industry have filed more than 13,300 COVID-related complaints with OSHA, records show, demonstrating widespread concern over their lack of protection at work. Twenty-three complaints reference a fear of retaliation, including among hospital workers who say they were pressured to work while sick.
The agency has closed investigations into those complaints but is investigating 6,600 more open complaints. OSHA has so far issued one citation against an employer, a spokesperson confirmed.
Employers are also struggling, evidenced by layoffs and an 11% unemployment rate, which the Congressional Budget Office projects will hit 16% in the coming weeks.
States have taken some matters in their own hands during months of federal inaction. At least 25 states have created some degree of legal immunity for doctors or facilities, through new laws or executive orders, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Officials in Virginia and Oregon have taken steps to enact their own heightened worker-protection rules related to the virus.
The effort to pass an OSHA rule to protect workers from infectious diseases dates to 2010, when regulators saw the need to better protect health care workers after the H1N1 flu pandemic.
Michaels, the former OSHA director under President Barack Obama, said the effort has stalled out under the Trump administration. Trump administration OSHA officials have defended their track record, saying adequate rules are in place to protect workers.
But a similar push succeeded in California in 2009. State officials passed a plan requiring health care employers to create a plan to protect health care workers from airborne viruses.
The California measure went further, requiring hospitals and nursing homes to stockpile or be prepared to supply workers with an N95 respirator — or an even more protective device — if treating patients with a virus like COVID-19.
Workplace safety experts in California, though, said it hasn’t worked as intended.
As more than 17,600 health care workers have become sick and 99 have died in the state, it’s become apparent that health care employers did not have plans in place, said Stephen Knight, executive director of Worksafe, a nonprofit focused on workplace safety.
“This was just a massive missed opportunity and one that cost people their lives,” Knight said. “People are just dying … with frightening regularity.”
California nurses who died after caring for COVID patients without an N95 respirator include Sandra Oldfield, 52, who wore a less-protective surgical mask while caring for a patient who wasn’t initially thought to have the virus.
A complaint to OSHA about a lack of N95 respirators that preceded her death put her hospital, Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center, in violation of the state’s standard, the state labor department confirmed.
However, alternative guidance is now in place because of global PPE shortages, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations. Kaiser Permanente, which is not affiliated with KHN, confirmed that the patient was not initially thought to have COVID-19 and that the company has followed state, local and CDC guidance on patient screening and use of PPE.
Hospital officials, who have come out against a national OSHA standard, said the plans that were in place did not account for the scope of the current pandemic and global supply chain breakdown.
“It is not for a lack of caring or trying to keep our workers safe,” said Gail Blanchard-Saiger, vice president for labor and employment with the California Hospital Association.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-07-14--Texas Progressives Eye GOP House Seat That Got Away in 2018

The primary race between Democratic candidates Mike Siegel and Pritesh Gandhi is coming down to a competition between progressive endorsements and a well-funded opponent in Texas ’ 10th Congressional district .
Siegel , a former civil rights attorney and public school teacher , is considered the progressive in the race with his support of hallmark progressive policies , such as universal healthcare and a Green New Deal .
He won endorsements from former presidential candidates and progressive leaders Sens .
Bernie Sanders ( I-Vt. ) and Elizabeth Warren ( D-Mass. )
.
The AFL-CIO , Sierra Club and Our Revolution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a primary care doctor , and he has received progressive organizational support in his own right .
Sen. Kamala Harris ( D-Calif. ) endorsed Gandhi , along with a small number of House members .
Planned Parenthood Action Fund and gun control group Giffords both support his campaign .
Gandhi , though , is considered more moderate , as he does not support some hallmark progressive policies such as Medicare for All .
On Super Tuesday , Siegel won the first round of voting with 44 percent of the vote , missing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outright .
Gandhi received 33 percent , and Shannon Hutcheson , an attorney , came in third place with 23 percent of the vote .
The race has come down to a second round of voting between Siegel and Gandhi .
The winner of the contest will challenge incumbent Rep. Michael McCaul ( R-Texas ) in the general election .
If Siegel wins the nomination , it would be a rematch for the two candidates .
McCaul , who has represented the district since 2005 , defeated Siegel narrowly by four points in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in McCaul ’ s tenure .
The district has a Cook Political rating of “ lean R ” and a Cook partisan voting index of R+9 .
Earlier this year , Texas was a disappointment for progressives who saw an opportunity to win the state for Sanders in March , but former Vice President Joe Biden won the state after his sweeping win in South Carolina and coalition of support from centrists .
Now , though , progressives have found new targets in local congressional races , the Texas Tribune reported .
Since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raised more than $ 1.2 million , while Siegel only raised $ 833,000 .
As of now , Gandhi has roughly $ 93,000 cash on hand , compared to the nearly $ 171,000 Siegel has in the bank .
Fundraising trends in this year ’ s cycle , though , have dwarfed that of 2018 .
Last cycle , Siegel raised only $ 481,000 , while McCaul was able to raise just over $ 1.7 million .
In 2020 , McCaul has raised north of $ 1.9 million , while the three Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million .
Outside groups have spent more than $ 474,000 to support Gandhi ’ s candidacy .
A majority of that spending has come from the 314 Action Fund , a liberal hybrid PAC dedicated to electing more scientists and candidates with STEM backgrounds to Congress .
The group has also spent $ 108,000 opposing Siegel ’ s candidacy .
The candidates ’ past experience has also played into their fundraising .
Gandhi , who currently works in healthcare , has received $ 181,000 from healthcare professionals .
On the other hand , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ received nearly $ 54,000 from donors in the education industry .

The primary race between Democratic candidates Mike Siegel and Pritesh Gandhi is coming down to a competition between progressive endorsements and a well-funded opponent in Texas’ 10th Congressional district.
Siegel, a former civil rights attorney and public school teacher, is considered the progressive in the race with his support of hallmark progressive policies, such as universal healthcare and a Green New Deal. He won endorsements from former presidential candidates and progressive leaders Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The AFL-CIO, Sierra Club and Our Revolution also endorsed his candidacy.
Gandhi is a primary care doctor, and he has received progressive organizational support in his own right. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) endorsed Gandhi, along with a small number of House members. Planned Parenthood Action Fund and gun control group Giffords both support his campaign. Gandhi, though, is considered more moderate, as he does not support some hallmark progressive policies such as Medicare for All.
On Super Tuesday, Siegel won the first round of voting with 44 percent of the vote, missing the 50 percent threshold to win the nomination outright. Gandhi received 33 percent, and Shannon Hutcheson, an attorney, came in third place with 23 percent of the vote. The race has come down to a second round of voting between Siegel and Gandhi.
The winner of the contest will challenge incumbent Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) in the general election. If Siegel wins the nomination, it would be a rematch for the two candidates. McCaul, who has represented the district since 2005, defeated Siegel narrowly by four points in 2018 — the closest margin of victory in McCaul’s tenure. The district has a Cook Political rating of “lean R” and a Cook partisan voting index of R+9.
Earlier this year, Texas was a disappointment for progressives who saw an opportunity to win the state for Sanders in March, but former Vice President Joe Biden won the state after his sweeping win in South Carolina and coalition of support from centrists. Now, though, progressives have found new targets in local congressional races, the Texas Tribune reported.
Since the start of the race, Gandhi raised more than $1.2 million, while Siegel only raised $833,000. As of now, Gandhi has roughly $93,000 cash on hand, compared to the nearly $171,000 Siegel has in the bank.
Fundraising trends in this year’s cycle, though, have dwarfed that of 2018. Last cycle, Siegel raised only $481,000, while McCaul was able to raise just over $1.7 million. In 2020, McCaul has raised north of $1.9 million, while the three Democratic candidates have collectively raised nearly $3.3 million.
Outside groups have spent more than $474,000 to support Gandhi’s candidacy. A majority of that spending has come from the 314 Action Fund, a liberal hybrid PAC dedicated to electing more scientists and candidates with STEM backgrounds to Congress. The group has also spent $108,000 opposing Siegel’s candidacy.
The candidates’ past experience has also played into their fundraising. Gandhi, who currently works in healthcare, has received $181,000 from healthcare professionals. On the other hand, Siegel, a former educator, has received nearly $54,000 from donors in the education industry.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-07-14--Deregulated Under Trump, Nursing Homes Are Becoming COVID Morgues

Lorry Sullivan was a regular visitor at the Our Lady of Consolation Nursing and Rehabilitative Care Center in West Islip , Long Island , New York , where her 89-year-old mother had been placed to recover from a fall earlier this year .
But in March , the facility suddenly barred all visitors .
And around the last week of that month , Sullivan said , phone calls went unanswered for several days .
When she finally did get through to her mother at the end of March — when the coronavirus outbreak was ravaging New York City and seeping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ She sounded terrible.
” Soon afterward , she said , a doctor called to tell her that her mother had been found “ unresponsive ” after falling out of her bed .
She also learned that her mother had a suspected urinary tract infection , and that COVID-19 was starting to spread through the facility .
Though visits had been halted , Sullivan managed to arrange a visit on April 7 .
By then , she barely recognized her mother .
Her face was heavily bruised and sunken ; she had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nothing left of her , ” and she had been running a fever for days .
That week , her mother tested positive for COVID-19 , and Sullivan scrambled to arrange to have her mother discharged early .
Within days , however , her mother died of COVID-19 and pneumonia before Sullivan could bring her home .
Altogether , there were 39 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and one suspected death at the facility as of July 8 — one of the highest nursing home death tolls in the state .
Sullivan suspects that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ family members in the dark while the virus was ravaging their loved ones in late March .
She said she blames the medical director for the mistreatment of “ these poor old people .
You don ’ t put a limit on the amount of life that they have… .
We don ’ t know how much longer my mother was going to live , ” she said .
“ She didn ’ t go in there sick .
She went in there with a leg injury , came out in a freaking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not let her family know what was going on ?
” Our Lady of Consolation ( which declined to comment on specific cases or residents , citing privacy laws ) claims it always maintained communication with families as it coped with an unprecedented crisis , and stated that it “ strongly den [ ies ] any improper treatment.
” And many nursing homes across the state saw similarly devastating outbreaks — perhaps inevitable given that the residents , by definition , are older and more vulnerable .
“ Obviously the horror could never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Jack Kupferman , president of the Gray Panthers NYC , which advocates for seniors in New York .
“ However , the damage would have been more limited if , at an earlier stage , there were enough tests , if there were proper staffing , if there was proper infection control , and if there had been proper regulation from the federal and state [ level ] .
” Instead , long-term care facilities have been steadily deregulated under the Trump administration .
When COVID-19 hit the industry , many facilities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of protective equipment .
The death toll is a measure of the social infrastructure ’ s decades of neglect of the aging , according to Kupferman .
“ These are people who are invisible .
They don ’ t speak up , and yet they ’ re the most vulnerable .
So their voice is limited , ” he said .
As of late June , the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ( CMS ) reported that the number of COVID-19 infections among nursing-home residents had exceeded 126,402 nationwide , in addition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deaths — though CMS admits its data is incomplete , as the data reporting only goes back to mid-May , and not all facilities have been consistently reporting data .
An independent analysis by The Wall Street Journal estimated that by mid-June , the actual death toll for nursing-home staff and residents was about 50,000 , or roughly 4 in 10 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S .
In New York , the COVID-19 crisis in nursing homes worsened after Gov .
Andrew Cuomo issued a mandate on March 25 that effectively directed long-term @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients from hospitals — an attempt to ease the pressure on hospitals that were becoming overburdened with COVID-19 cases .
By the time Cuomo rescinded the mandate on May 10 , the virus had killed 1 in 20 nursing home residents in the state .
Problems with infection control in nursing homes long predate the pandemic .
A recent Government Accountability Office report found that about 4 in 10 nursing homes surveyed had deficiencies in infection prevention and control .
COVID-19 death patterns also highlight the racial disparity in long-term care .
Researchers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a racial or ethnic minority was more associated with fatality risk than the quality rating their facility received from CMS ’ s auditing system .
According to R. Tamara Konetzka , a University of Chicago professor of health economics , nursing homes with higher proportions of people of color see higher death rates in large part because both residents and workers come from “ neighborhoods where it ’ s also more likely that people will be essential workers , will need public transportation , will not be able to socially isolate because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ higher exposure to the virus overall .
Although CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have announced they would step up enforcement of infection control standards in nursing homes , historically , inspections and enforcement of nursing homes by federal authorities have been notoriously lax and failed to deter violations , according to Richard Mollot of the Long Term Care Community Coalition ( LTCCC ) in New York .
When an understaffed facility can choose between paying “ $ 100,000 a year to hire another [ registered nurse ] in your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 2,000 fine , and all you really care about is the money , ” he said , “ you wouldn ’ t hire the nurse , you would just run the risk that you might have a $ 2,000 fine.
” One major reason why infection control is so inadequate is simply that nursing homes lack the staff needed to deliver care safely and effectively .
Though a nursing home ’ s medical director coordinates medical care , the bulk of the day-to-day care is handled by nurses , low-paid nursing assistants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to many more acutely ill residents than they can handle .
One recent study found that about three-quarters of nursing homes frequently fell short of federal staffing guidelines .
Today , nursing home staff , particularly nursing assistants , typically earn dismal wages and suffer extremely high occupational injury rates .
And they are among hundreds of frontline health care workers who have died .
By the second half of May , according to NPR , about a fifth of nursing homes nationwide reported that they were burning through their last week ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as masks , gowns or hand sanitizer .
The frontline staff in these facilities are among “ the lowest-paid , the least-trained and the least-supported [ health care personnel ] … .
We ’ re asking them to literally put their lives on the line for a position where they ’ re getting paid barely enough to feed their families , ” said Diane Menio , executive director of Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly .
“ And they have to go home to their families , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Felicia Glasgow , a licensed practical nurse at The Grand Pavilion for Rehabilitation and Nursing at Rockville Centre in Long Island , told me for Dissent that during the first several weeks of the outbreak , when the staff were overwhelmed with dozens of COVID-19 infections , they struggled to stretch their limited safety equipment — disinfecting masks so they could be reused on another shift , and using plastic bags as disposable gowns .
Some certified nursing assistants “ actually took the plastic bags and made holes in [ them ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personal protective equipment ( PPE ) ] to protect the PPE , ” Glasgow recalled , “ because sometimes you go from one patient to another patient , and they would rip that plastic bag off [ so they wouldn ’ t ] transfer the bacteria from one place to another .
So we came up with all kinds of ideas … to protect our residents [ from the virus ] .
So , it was a rough two weeks.
” The Grand Pavilion said in a statement that it had made “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ensure staff had “ the necessary equipment to provide the highest level of care while maintaining their personal safety , ” segregate COVID-positive patients and facilitate “ more than adequate levels of sufficient staffing.
” But Glasgow recalled that when the outbreak was at its peak , the workforce was way overstretched .
Several staff members called out sick , leaving her to handle a 32-bed unit with just one nursing assistant .
“ The work is overwhelming , ” she said , “ but every day , you keep going back .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , really gets to you .
Because they don ’ t realize that every time I step in that building , I put myself at risk… .
But my dedication to my profession made me go back every day.
” Although high nursing home death rates have been observed in European countries as well , advocates for nursing home consumers see the monstrous death toll in U.S. facilities as a byproduct of a heavily marketized private health care system .
Unlike the hospital system , the nursing home industry is 70 percent for-profit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chains .
Private equity firms and real estate investment trusts — a form of ownership that allows properties to be traded separately from the operations of the facility itself — are also major nursing home investors .
The prevalence of for-profit corporations is linked to lower-quality care .
One research study found that nursing homes owned by private equity firms tended to prioritize profits at the expense of quality of care .
In New York , a 2019 study by the LTCCC found that while both nonprofit and for-profit facilities had the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minimum care standards , on average , the total fines were about 70 percent higher in for-profit than in nonprofit facilities .
“ Nursing home real estate owners in many ways are today ’ s slum lords , ” said Mike Wasserman , a medical director of a California nursing home and president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine .
And despite the pandemic , some nursing homes might see a boost in their business .
Several states — including California , Massachusetts and Michigan — are incentivizing nursing homes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ designated COVID-19-only facilities , in order to access relatively high Medicare reimbursement rates for coronavirus patients , according to Politico .
Some Los Angeles nursing homes were offered about $ 850 per patient to serve as hubs for COVID-19 patients — more than quadruple the reimbursement rate for long-term dementia patients .
Yet a number of the facilities seeking this designation so far have gotten poor quality ratings in past federal audits — prompting concerns from consumer advocates that vulnerable coronavirus patients will be concentrated in homes with substandard care .
The devastation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 victims might soon be exacerbated by a quiet attempt by state and federal officials to shield long-term care facilities from legal liability over COVID-19-related death and illness .
Currently , about 21 states have enacted laws or executive orders , including a massive liability shield tucked into a budget bill in New York , that make it harder to bring lawsuits against nursing homes .
Claiming that legal immunity is necessary to help the long-term care industry survive the pandemic , the nursing home industry is also lobbying for a broad federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nursing homes nationwide .
But advocates say the systemic lack of accountability in the nursing-care sector is precisely why the pandemic has killed so many residents .
Eric Carlson , a directing attorney with the legal advocacy group Justice in Aging , argued that nursing homes do not need such broad immunity because courts would generally take the pandemic into account when weighing , for example , wrongful death lawsuits .
By contrast , under blanket immunity , “ providers wouldn ’ t be responsible , regardless of the facts — regardless of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poor management , and regardless of the poor care that might be provided , ” Carlson says .
“ And this is not the time when we want to do anything to excuse poor care , because we need better care during this time , not worse care.
” To prevent another wave of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes , reform advocates have pushed for federal mandates to ensure facilities have access to adequate staff , training and equipment to deal with the outbreak , along with full transparency on infection and death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a longstanding campaign to address the more systemic weaknesses in the nursing home workforce , with measures like safe staffing levels , which were recently proposed in a reform bill that would require at least 4.1 hours of direct nursing care per resident per day .
( The average nursing care hours per nursing home resident totaled 3.8 hours a day in 2016 . )
And the pandemic could compel people to rethink long-term care altogether ; families may shift towards home-based care with a home health aide , instead of congregate settings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just sort of not thought about nursing homes too much , ” said Jay Slotkin , president of the New York Medical Directors Association , which represents specialist doctors working in nursing homes .
“ They just [ assumed ] that … ‘ everything ’ s okay , visit grandma when I want to.
’ … Now they are going to look at it critically .
And a lot of people are going to say , ‘ I really don ’ t want grandma going to the nursing home.
’ ” The pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ often politically invisible demographic impossible to ignore .
“ I think this causes us to take a long hard look at how nursing homes are structured and resourced … to look at what we want out of the senior housing industry , ” Wasserman said .
“ Do we want to provide care for the most vulnerable members of our society , or do we want this to just be a business where real estate owners are making money , and we don ’ t really care about what happens to the people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And that ’ s something for society to decide .
”

Lorry Sullivan was a regular visitor at the Our Lady of Consolation Nursing and Rehabilitative Care Center in West Islip, Long Island, New York, where her 89-year-old mother had been placed to recover from a fall earlier this year. But in March, the facility suddenly barred all visitors. And around the last week of that month, Sullivan said, phone calls went unanswered for several days. When she finally did get through to her mother at the end of March — when the coronavirus outbreak was ravaging New York City and seeping into neighboring Long Island — Sullivan recalled: “She sounded terrible.”
Soon afterward, she said, a doctor called to tell her that her mother had been found “unresponsive” after falling out of her bed. She also learned that her mother had a suspected urinary tract infection, and that COVID-19 was starting to spread through the facility. Though visits had been halted, Sullivan managed to arrange a visit on April 7. By then, she barely recognized her mother. Her face was heavily bruised and sunken; she had lost weight, so “there was nothing left of her,” and she had been running a fever for days. That week, her mother tested positive for COVID-19, and Sullivan scrambled to arrange to have her mother discharged early. Within days, however, her mother died of COVID-19 and pneumonia before Sullivan could bring her home.
Altogether, there were 39 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and one suspected death at the facility as of July 8 — one of the highest nursing home death tolls in the state.
Sullivan suspects that the nursing home deliberately kept her and other family members in the dark while the virus was ravaging their loved ones in late March.
She said she blames the medical director for the mistreatment of “these poor old people. You don’t put a limit on the amount of life that they have…. We don’t know how much longer my mother was going to live,” she said. “She didn’t go in there sick. She went in there with a leg injury, came out in a freaking body bag. Who are you to not let her family know what was going on?”
Our Lady of Consolation (which declined to comment on specific cases or residents, citing privacy laws) claims it always maintained communication with families as it coped with an unprecedented crisis, and stated that it “strongly den[ies] any improper treatment.” And many nursing homes across the state saw similarly devastating outbreaks — perhaps inevitable given that the residents, by definition, are older and more vulnerable.
“She didn’t go in there sick. She went in there with a leg injury, came out in a freaking body bag. Who are you to not let her family know what was going on?”
“Obviously the horror could never be eliminated in this plague,” said Jack Kupferman, president of the Gray Panthers NYC, which advocates for seniors in New York. “However, the damage would have been more limited if, at an earlier stage, there were enough tests, if there were proper staffing, if there was proper infection control, and if there had been proper regulation from the federal and state [level].”
Instead, long-term care facilities have been steadily deregulated under the Trump administration. When COVID-19 hit the industry, many facilities were chronically understaffed and faced deep shortages of protective equipment. The death toll is a measure of the social infrastructure’s decades of neglect of the aging, according to Kupferman. “These are people who are invisible. They don’t speak up, and yet they’re the most vulnerable. So their voice is limited,” he said.
As of late June, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported that the number of COVID-19 infections among nursing-home residents had exceeded 126,402 nationwide, in addition to about 78,692 suspected cases and 35,517 deaths — though CMS admits its data is incomplete, as the data reporting only goes back to mid-May, and not all facilities have been consistently reporting data. An independent analysis by The Wall Street Journal estimated that by mid-June, the actual death toll for nursing-home staff and residents was about 50,000, or roughly 4 in 10 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S.
In New York, the COVID-19 crisis in nursing homes worsened after Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a mandate on March 25 that effectively directed long-term care facilities to take in many COVID-19 patients from hospitals — an attempt to ease the pressure on hospitals that were becoming overburdened with COVID-19 cases. By the time Cuomo rescinded the mandate on May 10, the virus had killed 1 in 20 nursing home residents in the state.
Problems with infection control in nursing homes long predate the pandemic. A recent Government Accountability Office report found that about 4 in 10 nursing homes surveyed had deficiencies in infection prevention and control.
COVID-19 death patterns also highlight the racial disparity in long-term care. Researchers have found that the prevalence of residents of a racial or ethnic minority was more associated with fatality risk than the quality rating their facility received from CMS’s auditing system. According to R. Tamara Konetzka, a University of Chicago professor of health economics, nursing homes with higher proportions of people of color see higher death rates in large part because both residents and workers come from “neighborhoods where it’s also more likely that people will be essential workers, will need public transportation, will not be able to socially isolate because of their job,” resulting in higher exposure to the virus overall.
Although CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have announced they would step up enforcement of infection control standards in nursing homes, historically, inspections and enforcement of nursing homes by federal authorities have been notoriously lax and failed to deter violations, according to Richard Mollot of the Long Term Care Community Coalition (LTCCC) in New York. When an understaffed facility can choose between paying “$100,000 a year to hire another [registered nurse] in your building, or you may face a $2,000 fine, and all you really care about is the money,” he said, “you wouldn’t hire the nurse, you would just run the risk that you might have a $2,000 fine.”
Embattled Workers
One major reason why infection control is so inadequate is simply that nursing homes lack the staff needed to deliver care safely and effectively. Though a nursing home’s medical director coordinates medical care, the bulk of the day-to-day care is handled by nurses, low-paid nursing assistants and other aides, who often tend to many more acutely ill residents than they can handle. One recent study found that about three-quarters of nursing homes frequently fell short of federal staffing guidelines.
Today, nursing home staff, particularly nursing assistants, typically earn dismal wages and suffer extremely high occupational injury rates. And they are among hundreds of frontline health care workers who have died.
By the second half of May, according to NPR, about a fifth of nursing homes nationwide reported that they were burning through their last week’s supply of protective equipment, such as masks, gowns or hand sanitizer.
Nursing homes nationwide reported that they were burning through their last week’s supply of protective equipment, such as masks, gowns or hand sanitizer.
The frontline staff in these facilities are among “the lowest-paid, the least-trained and the least-supported [health care personnel]…. We’re asking them to literally put their lives on the line for a position where they’re getting paid barely enough to feed their families,” said Diane Menio, executive director of Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly. “And they have to go home to their families, and they may be bringing the disease home.”
Felicia Glasgow, a licensed practical nurse at The Grand Pavilion for Rehabilitation and Nursing at Rockville Centre in Long Island, told me for Dissent that during the first several weeks of the outbreak, when the staff were overwhelmed with dozens of COVID-19 infections, they struggled to stretch their limited safety equipment — disinfecting masks so they could be reused on another shift, and using plastic bags as disposable gowns.
Some certified nursing assistants “actually took the plastic bags and made holes in [them], and put it over the [personal protective equipment (PPE)] to protect the PPE,” Glasgow recalled, “because sometimes you go from one patient to another patient, and they would rip that plastic bag off [so they wouldn’t] transfer the bacteria from one place to another. So we came up with all kinds of ideas … to protect our residents [from the virus]. So, it was a rough two weeks.”
The Grand Pavilion said in a statement that it had made “proactive” efforts to prevent infection, ensure staff had “the necessary equipment to provide the highest level of care while maintaining their personal safety,” segregate COVID-positive patients and facilitate “more than adequate levels of sufficient staffing.”
But Glasgow recalled that when the outbreak was at its peak, the workforce was way overstretched. Several staff members called out sick, leaving her to handle a 32-bed unit with just one nursing assistant. “The work is overwhelming,” she said, “but every day, you keep going back. And the lack of appreciation, sometimes, really gets to you. Because they don’t realize that every time I step in that building, I put myself at risk…. But my dedication to my profession made me go back every day.”
The Marketization of Nursing Home Care
Although high nursing home death rates have been observed in European countries as well, advocates for nursing home consumers see the monstrous death toll in U.S. facilities as a byproduct of a heavily marketized private health care system.
Unlike the hospital system, the nursing home industry is 70 percent for-profit, and the majority of facilities are chains. Private equity firms and real estate investment trusts — a form of ownership that allows properties to be traded separately from the operations of the facility itself — are also major nursing home investors.
The nursing home industry is 70 percent for-profit, and private equity firms and real estate investment trusts are major nursing home investors.
The prevalence of for-profit corporations is linked to lower-quality care. One research study found that nursing homes owned by private equity firms tended to prioritize profits at the expense of quality of care. In New York, a 2019 study by the LTCCC found that while both nonprofit and for-profit facilities had the same number of fines for violations of federal minimum care standards, on average, the total fines were about 70 percent higher in for-profit than in nonprofit facilities.
“Nursing home real estate owners in many ways are today’s slum lords,” said Mike Wasserman, a medical director of a California nursing home and president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine.
And despite the pandemic, some nursing homes might see a boost in their business. Several states — including California, Massachusetts and Michigan — are incentivizing nursing homes to create special COVID-19 sections or become designated COVID-19-only facilities, in order to access relatively high Medicare reimbursement rates for coronavirus patients, according to Politico. Some Los Angeles nursing homes were offered about $850 per patient to serve as hubs for COVID-19 patients — more than quadruple the reimbursement rate for long-term dementia patients. Yet a number of the facilities seeking this designation so far have gotten poor quality ratings in past federal audits — prompting concerns from consumer advocates that vulnerable coronavirus patients will be concentrated in homes with substandard care.
The devastation experienced by many families of nursing home COVID-19 victims might soon be exacerbated by a quiet attempt by state and federal officials to shield long-term care facilities from legal liability over COVID-19-related death and illness. Currently, about 21 states have enacted laws or executive orders, including a massive liability shield tucked into a budget bill in New York, that make it harder to bring lawsuits against nursing homes. Claiming that legal immunity is necessary to help the long-term care industry survive the pandemic, the nursing home industry is also lobbying for a broad federal immunity rule that would cover all 15,600 nursing homes nationwide.
“Nursing home real estate owners in many ways are today’s slum lords.”
But advocates say the systemic lack of accountability in the nursing-care sector is precisely why the pandemic has killed so many residents. Eric Carlson, a directing attorney with the legal advocacy group Justice in Aging, argued that nursing homes do not need such broad immunity because courts would generally take the pandemic into account when weighing, for example, wrongful death lawsuits. By contrast, under blanket immunity, “providers wouldn’t be responsible, regardless of the facts — regardless of the short staffing, regardless of the poor management, and regardless of the poor care that might be provided,” Carlson says. “And this is not the time when we want to do anything to excuse poor care, because we need better care during this time, not worse care.”
The Future of Long-Term Care
To prevent another wave of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes, reform advocates have pushed for federal mandates to ensure facilities have access to adequate staff, training and equipment to deal with the outbreak, along with full transparency on infection and death rates. But there has also been a longstanding campaign to address the more systemic weaknesses in the nursing home workforce, with measures like safe staffing levels, which were recently proposed in a reform bill that would require at least 4.1 hours of direct nursing care per resident per day. (The average nursing care hours per nursing home resident totaled 3.8 hours a day in 2016.)
About 21 states have enacted laws or executive orders that make it harder to bring lawsuits against nursing homes.
And the pandemic could compel people to rethink long-term care altogether; families may shift towards home-based care with a home health aide, instead of congregate settings like nursing homes.
“People have just sort of not thought about nursing homes too much,” said Jay Slotkin, president of the New York Medical Directors Association, which represents specialist doctors working in nursing homes. “They just [assumed] that … ‘everything’s okay, visit grandma when I want to.’ … Now they are going to look at it critically. And a lot of people are going to say, ‘I really don’t want grandma going to the nursing home.’”
The pandemic has, at least, made an often politically invisible demographic impossible to ignore.
“I think this causes us to take a long hard look at how nursing homes are structured and resourced … to look at what we want out of the senior housing industry,” Wasserman said. “Do we want to provide care for the most vulnerable members of our society, or do we want this to just be a business where real estate owners are making money, and we don’t really care about what happens to the people who live in [it]? And that’s something for society to decide.”
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truthout--2020-07-16--Southern Poverty Law Center Adds Stephen Miller to Its List of Extremists

The Southern Poverty Law Center ( SPLC ) , a nonprofit civil rights organization that documents the activities of hate groups across the U.S. , added a new entry to its database of extremists : White House senior adviser Stephen Miller .
Miller was added to the organization ’ s website on Wednesday , with the SPLC noting that President Donald Trump ’ s trusted confidante “ is credited with shaping the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump , ” including the zero-tolerance policy that led to thousands of children being separated from their families .
Miller also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Muslim ban , pushed for the president to attempt to end the popular Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ( DACA ) program , and advised moves to halt the issuance of green cards for immigrants using the coronavirus pandemic as a means to do so , SPLC said .
“ Through the conscious use of fearmongering and xenophobia , Miller implements policies which demonize immigrants , regardless of their immigration status , in an apparent effort to halt all forms of immigration to the United States , ” the nonprofit group adds .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ white supremacist views is a Vanity Fair report in which an outside White House adviser lamented that the presidential adviser actually enjoyed seeing pictures of immigrants being separated from family members at the border when that policy in effect .
Beyond his anti-immigration stances , SPLC also mentioned Miller ’ s penchant for purging government agencies of workers whom he considers insufficiently loyal to his agenda or Trump himself .
SPLC also included specific quotes from Miller defending Trump as an authoritarian figure .
“ The powers of the president to protect our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be questioned , ” he said in an interview on CBS ‘ “ Face the Nation ” in February 2017 , for example .
Although the “ extremist ” profile entry on Miller is new , the SPLC has long documented the Trump adviser ’ s extremism .
Late last year , the organization uncovered hundreds of emails from Miller to a writer at the far right website Breitbart News , which included recommendations of blog posts from white supremacist websites .
After those emails were revealed , 100 lawmakers from Congress ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Miller ’ s resignation from his role as presidential adviser .

Miller has helped shape some of the most “draconian” anti-immigration measures at the White House, the group noted.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit civil rights organization that documents the activities of hate groups across the U.S., added a new entry to its database of extremists: White House senior adviser Stephen Miller.
Miller was added to the organization’s website on Wednesday, with the SPLC noting that President Donald Trump’s trusted confidante “is credited with shaping the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump,” including the zero-tolerance policy that led to thousands of children being separated from their families.
Miller also shaped the White House’s early Muslim ban, pushed for the president to attempt to end the popular Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and advised moves to halt the issuance of green cards for immigrants using the coronavirus pandemic as a means to do so, SPLC said.
“Through the conscious use of fearmongering and xenophobia, Miller implements policies which demonize immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, in an apparent effort to halt all forms of immigration to the United States,” the nonprofit group adds.
Among the evidence demonstrating Miller’s white supremacist views is a Vanity Fair report in which an outside White House adviser lamented that the presidential adviser actually enjoyed seeing pictures of immigrants being separated from family members at the border when that policy in effect.
Beyond his anti-immigration stances, SPLC also mentioned Miller’s penchant for purging government agencies of workers whom he considers insufficiently loyal to his agenda or Trump himself.
SPLC also included specific quotes from Miller defending Trump as an authoritarian figure.
“The powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned,” he said in an interview on CBS‘ “Face the Nation” in February 2017, for example.
Although the “extremist” profile entry on Miller is new, the SPLC has long documented the Trump adviser’s extremism.
Late last year, the organization uncovered hundreds of emails from Miller to a writer at the far right website Breitbart News, which included recommendations of blog posts from white supremacist websites. After those emails were revealed, 100 lawmakers from Congress (none of them Republicans) called for Miller’s resignation from his role as presidential adviser.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.