90,000 deaths by October & How Nursing Homes Got Away With Hiding Bodies During the COVID-19 Outbreak 3&1JUL20

PHYSICAL DISTANCING: SIX FEET APART IS BETTER THAN SIX FEET UNDER!

Coronavirus Updates

THE PRC CORONAVIRUS FLAG IS A REMINDER OF THE PRC GOVERNMENT WHO UNLEASHED THIS PANDEMIC ON THE REST OF THE WORLD

CORONAVIRUS DASHBOARD

ONGOING reporting by the ACLU of the results of the drumpf / trump-pence administration's lack of planning for and lack of action to the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic focused on those with disabilities and those in nursing homes and their care givers. The first part of these sieries of reports is here.....

90,000 deaths by October

We want to inform you of a growing crisis in our country that has largely continued out of sight.

To date, deaths in nursing homes and other congregate settings for people with disabilities account for nearly half of all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. These are deaths to residents – people with disabilities – and staff – who are disproportionately people of color.

If current trends hold, nearly 90,000 people living in these facilities could die by October 1. Read more on our analysis of this grim crisis here.

These high death rates are not a coincidence or "inevitable" as many claim. They're the result of a system of discrimination and de-prioritization of people with disabilities that existed long before COVID-19.

Here's what we can tell you: After the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared a public health emergency, four months passed before it started to require nursing homes to publicly report COVID-19 infection and death rates. HHS still does not require other congregate settings, including institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and psychiatric facilities, to report deaths.

This lack of transparency doesn't just leave us without complete data to help control the pandemic – it allows lives to be lost without our knowing. In some cases, facilities have actively hidden deaths.

It's unacceptable. The ACLU has filed a petition with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and disability rights organizations calling on HHS and its agencies to meet its obligations under federal law – including providing true transparency to who is living, working, and dying in these institutions. But we all must do more to bring this issue to the forefront.

Please learn more on the urgency of this discriminatory crisis during COVID-19 and the importance of demanding the truth from HHS now.

Thanks for reading,

Brooke Madubuonwu
Director of Legal Analytics & Quantitative Research, ACLU

How Nursing Homes Got Away With Hiding Bodies During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Brooke Madubuonwu , Director of Legal Analytics and Quantitative Research

Charlotte Lawrence , Special Assistant for Digital, Tech, and Analytics

July 1, 2020

When COVID-19 first reached the U.S., the epicenter was a single nursing home in Washington State, where 45 people died. That nursing home outbreak was a precursor of what was to come. Ever since, the virus has been devastating nursing homes across the country, due in part to systemic mismanagement and discrimination against the people who live and work inside.

To date, deaths in nursing homes and other congregate care facilities account for almost half of all COVID-19 deaths in the country, despite these groups making up less than 1 percent of the population. Residents of these congregate facilities are dying from COVID-19 at 8.6 times the rate of the overall 75+ population.
 
If current trends hold, that means nearly 90,000 people living in nursing homes and other congregate care settings could die by October 1.

Grim as this projection is, the actual death toll to date is likely much higher than currently reported. It took the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) months after declaring COVID-19 a national emergency to start requiring nursing homes to report deaths and infections despite ample evidence that these facilities were at high risk. Even now, nursing homes are only required to report data from May 8 onward. HHS doesn’t require other congregate settings for people with disabilities, such as psychiatric homes, to report at all. This lack of transparency, in addition to the government’s systemic mismanagement of nursing homes and other congregate settings, has helped create the crisis we see today.

In some cases, facilities have not only failed to report, but have actively hidden deaths from residents, families, and the government. For example, a nursing home in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City hid 26 COVID-related deaths from the state by covertly shipping bodies out of the facility. At a nursing home in New Jersey, 17 bodies were packed into a shed and later crowded into a morgue meant to house only four bodies. Other stories emerged of residents’ families being left in the dark about whether loved ones were dead or alive.
 
While HHS has lagged in collecting data, states can independently choose to require reporting and publicize this information. But too often, states are slow to report, and the data is often piecemeal and insufficient for analyzing the full scale of the pandemic.

As of June 29, only 41 states report deaths in nursing homes, and the level of detail varies from state to state. Some states offer only state or county totals (such as Arkansas, Indiana, Vermont, and others) while others break down data by facility (including North Carolina, West Virginia, and Nevada). Only 12 states go as far as naming facilities, reporting both cases and deaths, and disaggregating between residents and staff. Disaggregating data in this manner allows us to more accurately measure the impact on various groups of people. Residents are mostly seniors and all are people with disabilities. Staff are disproportionately people of color, women, and low-income. All of these demographic variables are relevant and integral to any adequate public health response.  

Even when states do report deaths and infections in nursing homes, most do not offer critical demographic data. This information is essential for assessing the impact of COVID-19 on different communities and demographic groups and facilitating our response. Yet only two states — Mississippi and Iowa — report the demographics of residents or staff who have tested positive or died.

People with disabilities and the people who work with them deserve to be counted. States can and should modify current policies to collect and publicize vital data while maintaining privacy standards. Last week, the ACLU filed a petition calling on HHS to do its job to address this crisis — and its job includes collecting and reporting full data from facilities that receive Medicaid or Medicare dollars.

The government needs good data to adequately respond to COVID-19. Data helps to inform where to investigate, where to channel resources, and what policies and practices to adopt. At the individual level, data helps people decide which facilities to live in and which to avoid. And in the long run, data can propel change to ensure this crisis never happens again.
 
The first step to change the system is to get to the truth. HHS must tell the truth about what is happening in the nursing homes and other congregate settings for people with disabilities that it oversees and funds with our taxpayer dollars.

Maps reflect public data reporting as of 06/29/2020. Links to state-level data sources available here.

U.S. Cities Need Masks and Tests, Mr. President, Not Shock Troops & More Military Deployment and Terrorism Investigations are an Outrageous Response to Black Pain, Grief, and Anger 23JUL&4JUN20

RATHER than address the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic the fascist drumpf / trump-pence administration committed time and taxpayer dollars to the sturmabteilung / department of homeland security. Following orders from (NOT MY) pres drumpf / trump acting oberster sa-fuhrer chad wolf with his sa oberfuhrer ken cuccinelli are committed to carrying out attacks on the American people, violating civil and human rights in Washington, D.C.,  Portland, OR, and sending members of the sturmabteilung to Seattle, WA, Kansas City, MO, Chicago, IL and Albuquerque, NM to carry out the same violations of the American constitution against the American people. With these actions and the misinformation, lies and propaganda spewing from the White House and being spread by Faux fox news drumpf / trump-pence expect their "law and order" policies and actions will turn the 2020 presidential election in their favor. UNFORTUNATELY there is a very good possibility drumpf / trump-pence will be reelected and so we can not give up, we must remain vigilant, remain engaged and remain  committed, in the words of the late Rep John Lewis, “We must go out and vote like we’ve never, ever voted before.” 18JUL20". 
From DemocracyNow! and the ACLU 

U.S. Cities Need Masks and Tests, Mr. President, Not Shock Troops

ColumnJULY 23, 2020

By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

Camouflage-clad paramilitary vigilantes have been terrorizing Portland, Oregon, grabbing people protesting racism and police brutality, pulling them into unmarked minivans and driving off. These roving shock troops, with no insignia or badges, proved to be federal agents from a slew of agencies, ordered to Portland after President Donald Trump issued an executive order on June 26th, a month and a day after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police. Trump’s order, “Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence,” was a rambling diatribe against the massive, diverse protest movement that has swept the country in the wake of Floyd’s murder and the police killings of Ahmaud Aubrey, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and so many more.

Juxtapose these fallen innocents with the statues Trump is desperately trying to protect: Confederate President Jefferson Davis; General Robert E. Lee; John C. Calhoun, the 7th vice president of the U.S. and a strident defender of slavery, and Roger Taney, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision denying citizenship to African Americans. Add to these the Southern military bases named after Confederate officers, which Trump has declared will not be renamed under his watch: Benning, Bragg, Hood and others.

As more Confederate statues and shrines to slavery and genocide have fallen, so too have Trump’s poll numbers. In response, he is putting into practice his frightening penchant for authoritarianism, unleashing a clandestine shadow army on the citizenry, criminalizing protest as he struggles to inflame white supremacy. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic surges through the country, and Trump is utterly failing to provide essential federal resources, from personal protective equipment (PPE) to testing and contact tracing, all the basic elements needed to contain this deadly virus. Democratic Washington Governor Jay Inslee recently summed up the situation, saying, “I wish he cared more about living Americans instead of dead Confederates.”

On March 16th, early in the pandemic, Trump told U.S. governors, “Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves.” This pitted fifty governors against each other and the federal government in the open market for masks, gloves, testing swabs, reagents and other supplies, driving up prices and causing lethal shortages. Tens of thousands of people died unnecessarily as a result of Trump’s dereliction of duty. “We saw healthcare workers in garbage bag gowns and reusing the same N95 masks for days on end while they risked their lives to save others,” Senators Leahy, Durbin, Murray and Tester wrote to Trump this week, demanding to know why an estimated $8 billion of taxpayer money appropriated for the COVID-19 response, specifically for masks, testing and other supplies, remains unspent.

Reports in recents days, based on unnamed White House sources, suggest Trump wants to completely cut funding to the CDC and NIH for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, angering even Senate Republicans.

The U.S. has a quarter of the global COVID-19 infections and deaths, but less than five percent of the world’s population. Nationwide, 60,000 people are now hospitalized with COVID-19 and 1,000 people dying from the disease every day. Shortages of masks, ICU beds, and space for the dead in morgues are mounting. Currently, on a per capita basis, the hardest hit states are Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, Mississippi, Alabama, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, Idaho, Tennessee, and Georgia — a list that includes all seven of the original Confederate states. Despite the worsening catastrophe, the Republican governors of Florida, Georgia and Arizona, all staunch Trump allies, refuse to issue state-wide mask mandates.

They are only following their leader, President Trump, who also won’t issue a national mask mandate, claiming to respect state and local authority. In almost the same breath, though, Trump threatens to send a “surge” of armed federal agents to major cities across the country, against the wishes of those very cities and states. President Trump’s job is to protect public safety. That includes protecting the public health, especially in this time of the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and police brutality.

The response in Oregon to Trump’s outrageous and likely unconstitutional deployment of federal agents has been resoundingly critical. Governor Kate Brown denounced “secret police abducting people,” and Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has sued several of the federal agencies involved. In the streets, a contingent of women has grown nightly, protecting protesters by forming a “wall of moms.” Senator Ron Wyden, describing the federal agents as “essentially fascist,” warned, “if the line is not drawn in the sand right now, America may be staring down the barrel of martial law in the middle of a presidential election.”

More Military Deployment and Terrorism Investigations are an Outrageous Response to Black Pain, Grief, and Anger

The government should not escalate the tension, fear, and pain we’re seeing and feeling across the country.

Hina Shamsi , Director, ACLU National Security Project

June 4, 2020

Across the country, people are protesting police brutality and systemic racism. They are relentlessly demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the countless other Black people killed by police. In response, President Trump, supported by belligerent enablers in Congress and his administration, has threatened to deploy federal troops into states, and federal agencies are investigating protestors for domestic terrorism. These presidential threats and actions are authoritarian, irresponsible, dangerous, and wrong. 

Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807 was extraordinary — over the last 50 years, presidents have rarely used this extreme authority, and rightly so. In this country, we have a strong norm against deploying the military on domestic soil, recognizing the threat it poses to liberty and individual civil rights. This norm is reflected in law — Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act in 1878 to prohibit the use of federal military forces “to execute the law” unless the Constitution or Congress authorize it. That means the federal military can’t, for example, search, seize, arrest, apprehend, stop and frisk, surveil, pursue, interrogate, or investigate civilians.

But Congress also passed exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act, the most expansive and potentially dangerous of which is the Insurrection Act of 1807. In the Insurrection Act, Congress gave presidents the authority to deploy active-duty federal troops and National Guard members under federal control — to suppress insurrection, acts of massive or widespread violence that “make it impracticable” to enforce federal law, or similar violence that obstructs federal law or the course of justice. Historically, presidents have invoked this authority to deploy troops at the request of a state, but also sometimes over a state’s objections — for example, to enforce civil rights protections and court-ordered desegregation. That is the opposite of what Trump would do.

Much as Trump loves the rhetoric of “war” and sees Black and Brown protest as a threat, the reality is that we are not at war in this country. Nor is it impracticable for civilian authorities to respond calmly and responsibly to unrest, especially when it is over their own abuses. Protestors are demanding that law enforcement end decades of unjust, unequal, and racist treatment of Black communities.

What Trump doesn’t seem to understand when he threatens to unleash “unlimited” military power domestically is that there are limits. Even if he were to wrongly and unnecessarily invoke the Insurrection Act, federal troops would still be subject to all of the safeguards and restrictions the Constitution imposes. Even so, the escalation would carry obvious dangers of excessive government surveillance and use of force, in violation of the Constitution. Civilian police, National Guard forces in D.C., and some National Guard forces in states are already engaging in serious abuses and violence.

An even more militarized response to civilian dissent would escalate the tension, fear, and pain we’re seeing and feeling across the country, especially in communities already traumatized by police violence. It would worsen the over-policing of Black lives — the very reason why people around the country are protesting.
 
Current and former military leaders are rightly warning against calling out more troops, and reminding troops of the fundamentals of the Constitution. Still, the fact that military leaders are being hailed as calming influences is a stark marker of how broken our politics, norms, and country are. It was not so long ago that military leaders had to reaffirm the prohibition against torture when it was systematically used against Brown and Black men abroad.

We have not come a long way, America. Perhaps policymakers will finally wake up to the harms of decades of rights-violating, war-based foreign policy — and its connections to militarized policing and racism at home. Every politician who is quick to laud Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. needs to remember his radical call to action against “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.” There is so much to fundamentally reform, and the people in the streets are demonstrating their urgent will for change. Yet much like during Dr. King’s time, federal agencies are viewing civil rights protests and protestors as domestic terrorists — enemies of the state.

Public attention has mostly focused on Trump blaming Antifa for violence and asserting that he would designate it as a domestic terrorist organization, even though he does not have that legal authority. That the same day, the FBI’s Washington Field Office reported it “has no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement/presence” in violence, and a later Department of Homeland Security intelligence assessment reportedly found the violence that has occurred is opportunistic.

Focusing on the threat against Antifa alone, though, misses the broader harms and consequences. Attorney General Barr this week enthusiastically announced that the Justice Department is using its broad and abusive domestic terrorism investigative powers in response to civil unrest.

Terrorism is an inherently political label, easily abused and misused. Communities of color already know this from 20 years of experience being targeted for discriminatory surveillance and investigation under the Patriot Act’s broad and vague definition of domestic terrorism. Black communities have long been in federal law enforcement’s cross-hairs: in 2017, the FBI concocted the label “black identity extremists,” opening the door to bias-based profiling of Black people and Black-led organizations who use their voices to demand racial justice. The agency appears to have conducted similar investigations of indigenous activists and protest. Civil rights leaders and groups have long demanded reform of national security and criminal authorities that discriminatorily suppress and punish Black and Brown people, and raise significant equal protection, due process, and First Amendment concerns. But Congress has stubbornly refused to act. 

Now, Trump and Barr appear willing to bring the massive weight of the federal government’s expanded post-9/11 investigative powers and agencies down on new generations of racial justice and civil rights activists crying out for the right of Black people to live, and a more equal and just America. 

These are some of the real threats we face right now — and reject.

Virginia, Utah residents report receiving unsolicited packets of seeds in the mail reportedly from China 25JUL20

THE threat of invasive species is serious, please alert the authorities if you receive one of these mailings. AND there is nothing in this report to suggest people in other states will not receive these mailings sometime soon. From Fox News....

Virginia, Utah residents report receiving unsolicited packets of seeds in the mail reportedly from China

Officials have advised residents not to plant the seeds

By Peter Aitken | Fox News

Virginia residents have been advised not to plant any unsolicited seeds they may have received in the mail, the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VADACS) has advised.

Residents reported to the VDACS that they received packets of seeds in the mail with writing on the outside that appears to be Chinese. The seeds have yet to be identified, but officials speculate that the seeds may be of an invasive plant species and are advising residents not to use them.

"Taking steps to prevent their introduction is the most effective method of reducing both the risk of invasive species infestations and the cost to control and mitigate those infestations," VDACS officials said in a release.

Virginia is not the only state to receive unsolicited seed packets, with FOX 13 Salt Lake City reporting that residents across Utah have received similar deliveries.

In some cases, the packages were labeled as containing jewelry or another similarly attractive content.

“I opened them up and they were seeds,” said Lori Culley, a resident from Tooele, Utah. “Obviously they’re not jewelry.”

FOX 13 confirmed that the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food will likely team up with Customs and Border Protection to investigate.

Jane Rupp, president of the Better Business Bureau's (BBB's) Utah chapter, told FOX 13 the incidents could be a scam known as “brushing” where some companies will send you a product so they can post a fake review in your name.

“That is rather random. I don’t think I’ve heard of seeds before,” Rupp said. “The first thing to do is Google your address and see what’s out there… Numerous things will come up when you Google your address. It’s kind of scary sometimes.”

Anyone who has received this type of package is asked to contact the Office of Plant Industry Services (OPIS) at 804-786-3515 or send an email to ReportAPest@vdacs.virginia.gov.

COMMON PRAYER, A LITURGY FOR ORDINARY RADICALS CELEBRATE THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ADA & 50% of COVID-19 deaths, but 1% of the U.S. population & COVID-19 Deaths in Nursing Homes are Not Unavoidable — They are the Result of Deadly Discrimination 26JUL20

PHYSICAL DISTANCING: SIX FEET APART IS BETTER THAN SIX FEET UNDER!

Coronavirus Updates

THE PRC CORONAVIRUS FLAG IS A REMINDER OF THE PRC GOVERNMENT WHO UNLEASHED THIS PANDEMIC ON THE REST OF THE WORLD

CORONAVIRUS DASHBOARD

THIS is the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act becoming law. The first part of this post is thanksgiving and celebration of the ADA found in Common Prayer, A Liturgy For Ordinary Radicals and the second part of this post is a report from the ACLU of the disproportionate number of disabled people and their caregivers who have died during the coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic and a call for local, state and federal governments to take specific actions to cut the number of deaths in these groups. 

Daily Prayers for July 26
On July 26, 1990, US President George Bush signed the world’s first civil rights law for -people with disabilities. Since its signing in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act has served as legal protection for equal opportunity in all aspects of life, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for -people with disabilities.

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you
as the day rises to meet the sun.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Come, let us bow down and bend the knee : let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

Song “Freedom Train”

Make us one with your poor, O Lord : that we might see the salvation of our God.

Psalm 119:121 – 25

I have done what is just and right : do not deliver me to my oppressors.

Be surety for your servant’s good : let not the proud oppress me.

My eyes have failed from watching for your salvation : and for your righteous promise.

Deal with your servant according to your loving-kindness : and teach me your statutes.

I am your servant; grant me understanding : that I may know your decrees.

Make us one with your poor, O Lord : that we might see the salvation of our God.

1 Sam-uel 2:27 – 36 Acts 26:1 – 23

Make us one with your poor, O Lord : that we might see the salvation of our God.

Hear these words of L’Arche founder Jean Vanier: -“People may come to our communities because they want to serve the poor; they will only stay once they have discovered that they themselves are the poor.”

Prayers for Others

Our Father

Lord, thank you for using the foolish to confound the wise and the weak ones to shame the strong. Help us live with the shrewdness of serpents and the innocence of doves. Keep our feet from fatigue, our spirits from despair, and our hands from failing to rise in praise to you. Amen.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;


may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

50% of COVID-19 deaths, but 1% of the U.S. population

30 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law – a landmark civil rights bill making discrimination against people with disabilities unlawful and promising opportunity to live integrated lives in our communities, outside of segregated institutions. But the joy of this anniversary is muted by a pandemic that has made clear how many barriers people with disabilities still face when it comes to true equity. Since the outbreak began, tens of thousands of deaths have occurred inside nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, and other institutions for people with disabilities – a cruel reality that is disproportionately impacting both people of color and women. This is a grave situation and people with disabilities continue to be left behind, which is why the ACLU is doing all we can to educate activists like you as we fight for immediate change. You'll gain a more in-depth understanding in my piece here, but in sum, here's what needs to happen on the federal and state level to help repair this deadly crisis: Heed the dangers inherent in institutional life that the pandemic has exposed by greatly reducing the number of people living in these congregate care facilities and increasing support for home- and community-based services. Protect those who remain in these facilities by improving staffing, infection control, and care, while requiring data and transparency about workers and residents in all settings for people with disabilities. Provide PPE, paid sick leave, overtime pay, and 'hero’ pay for essential workers who care for residents in these facilities and whose economic security is already precarious. Our team is urgently pushing states, governors, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement these actions – critical work which you can read more about here. Because if nothing changes, then COVID-19 in these facilities will continue to unjustly ravage institutions, playing out across disability, racial, and gender lines. People living in these congregate settings make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, but nearly 50% of COVID-19 deaths. The staff in congregate settings – disproportionately women of color and immigrants – also face high death rates. These facts are not coincidental. They stem from decades of indifference, invisibility, and discrimination against those who live and work in these segregated institutions. And with 30 years of the ADA and lives now at stake, we must do better – and we must do it now. Thank you for reading, Susan Mizner ACLU Director, Disability Rights Project

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COVID-19 Deaths in Nursing Homes are Not Unavoidable — They are the Result of Deadly Discrimination

We as a society must reckon with our relentless marginalization and de-prioritization of people with disabilities and the people who support them.

Susan Mizner , Director

June 23, 2020

COVID-19 has ripped through nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, and other congregate settings for people with disabilities. People living in these settings make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, but nearly 50 percent of COVID-19 deaths.

Some have said these deaths are inevitable. Some have even called for “weeding out the weak” as part of herd mentality. But these deaths are far from inevitable. They arise from decades of indifference, invisibility, and deadly discrimination against the people who live and work in these settings. They also arise from our government’s abdication of its responsibility to regulate and monitor these segregated institutions.  

Congregate settings for people with disabilities include nursing homes, psychiatric facilities, and intermediate care facilities for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Long before COVID-19, these facilities already had a poor track record with insufficient oversight, poor infection control, under-staffing, and inadequate training. Combined, these conditions created the powder keg. COVID-19 lit the match.  

How has this happened? This is the first in a series of ACLU blogs addressing this crisis, in which we will break down the causes at the institutional level and the personal effect on individuals such as staff and residents. The focus today is on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and its agency, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS). Together, HHS and CMS are charged with regulating and monitoring the vast majority of the institutions where we have warehoused people with disabilities. HHS is responsible for the primary funding and for ensuring the safety of people in these facilities. And it has failed miserably in the age of COVID-19. 

On January 31, 2020, HHS declared a national public health emergency to respond to COVID-19. As a primary response to the pandemic, all of our medical and political leaders demanded social distancing. We closed schools and dormitories, required employees to work from home, and shuttered bars, restaurants, and ball parks. But we did not extend this disease prevention tactic to nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, and developmental disability facilities. In fact, HHS has done the opposite. It has instructed nursing homes to take new patients without first confirming that they are not infected with COVID-19, and it has waived regulations to help divert people from entering institutions.

HHS has mechanisms at its disposal to reduce the overcrowding and dangerous conditions in these institutions. It can increase its funding for Home and Community Based Services and community mental health services, so people can stay in their own homes to get support. It can encourage states to advertise a provision allowing family members — so many of whom are sheltering in place without work — to take their relatives out of nursing homes and get paid to provide their care. And, it could increase the discharged planning process to move those who wish to be back in the community to move there. But it has failed on all counts.

HHS also has obligations to step up infection control and safety for the people who cannot yet leave these institutions. But it has not required states to prioritize personal protective equipment (PPE) or testing for staff or residents, and it has failed to increase the consequences for facilities that violate infection prevention measures. As a result, these institutions, rather than being havens from infection, are ‘death pits’ — among the most dangerous places in the country during this pandemic.

And finally, HHS should provide transparency, so that individuals and families can decide for themselves whether to enter — or stay — in an institution. Instead, more than four months passed before HHS started to require nursing homes to publicly report COVID-19 infection and death rates. And even this is incomplete — as nursing homes can choose not to report deaths before May 6, and other congregate settings — such as psychiatric hospitals, group homes, and institutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities — have no reporting obligations at all. 

Yesterday marked the twenty-first anniversary of Olmstead v. L.C., the landmark Supreme Court decision that recognized that “unjustified institutional isolation of persons with disabilities is a form of discrimination.” The court went on to observe that institutional confinement limits every part of a person’s life, and that such confinement “perpetuates unwarranted assumptions that persons so isolated are incapable or unworthy of participating in community life.”

Today, we filed a petition calling on HHS and its agencies to meet their obligations under Olmstead and under federal law. We are asking HHS to get people out of institutions as quickly and safely as possible, to provide genuine infection prevention and control measures for those who remain, and to provide true transparency as to who is living, working, and dying in these institutions. 

HHS must respond. Collectively, we have much more to do. As a society, we must reckon with our relentless marginalization and de-prioritization of people with disabilities and the people who support them. We must look at the tens of thousands of deaths inside congregate care settings as a collective, systemic tragedy. These victims of COVID-19 are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandmothers, grandfathers — all of us. We must end the disregard and discrimination that took their lives and that threatens — if we do not act quickly — to take many more.