Kendall County Times

Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) condemned Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) for failure to take action that led to dozens of deaths at a state-run veterans' home.

A state audit found that during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, severe mismanagement at the LaSalle Veterans' Home led to the death of 36 veterans from COVID, CBS News Chicago reported.

Rezin spoke at a news conference and was joined by other Illinois state leaders and legislators. 

"This tragedy comes down to a failure of leadership by Gov. Pritzker," Rezin said. "As a candidate, he said it's our responsibility to defend our veterans and keep them safe; that's not something Gov. [Bruce] Rauner (R-Ill.) did. Let me say this: that's not something Gov. Pritzker did either."

Rezin's comments continued.

"Since taking off as governor, he had every opportunity to improve veterans' care at the state-run homes," she said. "Well before the pandemic began, through recommendations from the performance audit from consultants and through executive orders. Starting with a 2019 Illinois auditor general's recommendation to develop a timely, on-site policy by the Department of Public Health when an outbreak occurs at a veterans' home. By not implementing the 2019 recommendation, it proved fatal during the outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans' Home." 

"Although the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) … officials were informed of the increasing positive cases almost on a daily basis … IDPH did not identify and respond to the seriousness of the outbreak," an unnamed auditor said, according to CBS News Chicago. "All but four residents who died were positive prior to the date of the IDPH site visit."

"The three-day delay at Quincy turned into an 11-day delay at LaSalle, and IDPH still lacks such a policy today," Rezin said. "A timely, on-site response is essential to slow the spread of an outbreak, and as this month's auditor-general report stated, IDPH did nothing to offer any assistance or advice as to how to slow the spread at the home. There's no question that residents were more protected following IDPH's on-site visit nearly two weeks after the outbreak than before IDPH decided to show up. The governor's office, IDVA, and IDPH had the same data, but no one acted on it for nearly two weeks.

"Of the 710 long-term facilities being monitored by IDPH, only four reported more than 50 cases during the first week of November, with the LaSalle veterans' facility being the sole facility with over 100 cases. That information alone, according to the auditor general's report, should have raised an immediate response by this administration. But it didn't. It's clear that no one oversaw the state's response."

In response to the audit, Pritzker brought up the political environment surrounding the pandemic in 2020, CBS News Chicago reported.

"Republicans told them that they need not wear masks," Pritzker said. "They [told] people that they didn't need to get vaccinated. They told people that that COVID wasn't serious."

"I’ve offered a series of legislative bills changing how the state responds to outbreaks, including a time frame from which IDPH should arrive on-site when an outbreak occurs," Rezin said. "I called on the governor multiple times over the past 14 months to get these responses and proposals called, yet his office has refused to respond. It's puzzling and it's frustrating why a governor is so disengaged in this process of fixing the tragic mistakes that led to 36 veterans dying at the LaSalle Veterans' Home. Gov. Pritzker is not defending our veterans and keeping them safe. It's time for the governor to set aside his pride and his lack of leadership and commitment to supporting my legislation solutions, which he's ignored for the last year. Doing nothing will only lead us down the path of another Quincy and LaSalle. Our veterans deserve more than failed leadership and shifting blame to others."

The administrator of the LaSalle Veterans' Home was fired by Pritzker, according to CBS News Chicago.