A Look at How ALL the Governors Handled the Pandemic
Republican Governors
Alabama Kay Ivey
As of May 2020, Alabama was keeping nursing home covid information a secret. Ivey has kept a very low profile during the pandemic. She initially refused to issue a stay-at-home order. Covid patients were also sent back to nursing homes.
Alaska Mike Dunleavy
Dunleavy closed down the state early on in March. Alaska has the country’s lowest death rate, although they were not spared from Covid completely. This is probably due to the fact that Alaska is not densely populated.
Arizona Doug Ducey
Arizona lost control of the virus early on and was even considered an epicenter of the virus in June 2020. Their numbers were worse than the boroughs in New York City. By January 6th, 2021 it was reported that they had the highest infection rate in the entire world. Ducey refused to make a mask order or stay at home order, leaving restaurants open like usual. They refused to release the names of nursing homes affected by Covid and hid the numbers in June 2020, fearing bad publicity. They have recently seen an alarming spike in nursing homes again starting in January 2021. Ducey has since been censured because he was criticized by Trump loyalists.
https://www.insider.com/arizona-coronavirus-response-lost-control-experts-say-2020-6
Arkansas Asa Hutchinson
Tyson Foods was accused of mishandling the virus. Their managers’ bets were a public scandal. Arkansas released 300 people early from their prisons to prevent the spread. In October 2020 they reported the highest infection rate in nursing homes throughout the entire country. Asa did not sign a mask order until July 2020. https://www.thepoultrysite.com/news/2020/07/tyson-employee-alleges-mishandling-of-covid-19-cases
Florida Ron DeSantis
In an attempt to cover up and withhold covid numbers DeSantis fired staff who wanted to speak up. They denied the virus was spreading, despite the fact it was. In September 2020 the DOH was told to stop issuing statements on Covid until after the election. They only released information about Covid numbers in nursing homes, hospitals, and prisons when the victims’ families threatened them with legal action. His team has refused to listen to scientists who urged him to close businesses. He lied and said the flu was more deadly. DeSantis mentioned data in his press briefings, but didn’t release the data he was referencing; even lying and saying a few weeks after Easter that the state's numbers were declining when they were rising. He refused to make a mask order and banned Mayors from making their own mask orders. Covid surged in nursing homes over the holidays. The number of cases doubled!
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a34874719/ron-desantis-covid-19-florida/
Georgia Brian Kemp
Kemp never made a mask order. At one point he was suing his Mayors for making them. This man has a few loose screws. He also had a lot of problems getting the GA nursing homes staffed. In September 2020 he reopened them up for visitors.
Idaho Brad Little
It was announced on June 5, 2020, that Idaho would start putting nursing home deaths on their dashboard. This was only after a lawsuit was threatened. In August of 2020, many people were worried about their loved ones in nursing homes. They wanted to be able to see them and make sure they were being properly cared for. Over half of the deaths in the state have been linked to nursing homes.
https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/coronavirus/article242327361.html
Indiana Eric Holcomb
It is believed that IN has had way more nursing home deaths than were reported, something like 660 deaths were missed. Much like Andrew Cuomo’s defense, he said they were in the statewide death total. This keeps happening there. This was met with a lot of understanding. It is not known who exactly is at fault for this, the state or the LTC.
Iowa Kim Reynolds
Iowa never had a stay-at-home order. Only had a mask mandate from December 2020 to February 2021. Her state is one of the few where cases are actually still going up. Despite this, she has lifted all COVID restrictions. However, some cities still have them. She made false claims like there isn’t enough law enforcement to keep up the mask mandate. Hey, lady, I think you’re actually crazy. She is often called COVID Kim. She didn’t do much for schools and seemed to act like everything was totally normal. In September 2020 her popularity started to slip, and we don’t think it ever has come back. She might be one of the lowest ranking Governors in her handling of the pandemic. It’s like she didn’t even know there was a pandemic.
Maryland Larry Hogan
Hogan actually did an ok job for a while. However, at some point, the unemployment system malfunctioned and people got upset. They weren’t able to get Covid tests early on. He insists that he did a good job with nursing homes, however, The Trump administration said it was bad. Patients at nursing homes, at least at one point accounted for 50% of the state’s death toll. Vaccine rollout has been slow.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/16/larry-hogan-trump-coronavirus/
Massachusetts Charlie Baker
As late as September 27, 2020, he decided to not tell the actual numbers of deaths, even though only 3 months earlier he decided to sign a law that required more information about the deaths. It said things like 1-10 or <30. What does that even mean? As of November 7, 2020, the deaths were still rising at nursing homes. Of course January 13, 2021 the cases were still rising, despite the vaccine, which has had a slow rollout.
Mississippi Tate Reeves
Reeves refused to mandate stay-at-home orders despite a call to action. Instead, he threw together a pandemic team and went on a trip to Europe on March 4, 2020. After the 1st case of Covid reached MS on March 11, 2020, he rushed home to declare a state of emergency and hold a prayer service. He still refused to make a stay-at-home order which forced many at-risk people back to work. They were short on tests and had no way to know who was infected. He finally made a SAH order in April and a mask order in August. They also had a huge problem with nursing homes and collecting the data.
Missouri Mike Parson
In Missouri, Veterans’ Homes failed miserably to contain the virus. They were provided optional guidance, which they failed to follow. Parson called for an investigation and then refused to release the complete findings. Covid positive patients were left in the homes and not quarantined or even required to wear a mask. As outbreaks rose across the nation they did nothing until it was too late.
Montana Greg Gianforte
Gianforte is relatively new to his job. He recently ended the mask mandate claiming that there enough people vaccinated. This is a really bad idea since we have no idea how long this vaccine will work or if it will keep working.
https://news.mt.gov/governor-gianforte-issues-new-directives-executive-order
Nebraska Pete Ricketts
Early on the AARP requested to see the nursing home cases and death numbers in Nebraska. They had to keep asking for the names of the nursing homes with positive cases. They just kept on going with him and begging him to do a better job protecting the residents. As of May 11, 2020 he still hadn’t released the data that he was supposed to. Also, he never issued a stay-at-home order. I think he should be in big trouble for this.
Chris Sununu New Hampshire
New Hampshire has some of the worst cases and death numbers among long-term care. Sununu actually delayed action in these places. About 81% of the deaths in this state come from long-term care. It also had the second-highest rate of any state of all-around COVID-19 cases. In the beginning, they didn’t even have enough PPE to go around. At one point he set a goal to test all staff and patients in 2 weeks’ time, which he failed at. He is very obsessed with his looks on TV and doesn’t feel for anyone.
North Dakota Doug Burgum
As of November 22, 2020 nursing homes made up about 66% of the deaths, and they have a very small population. This was just an estimated amount since no one at this time was able to confirm the number. Either way, the death rate in November 2020 had gotten really bad. Really no matter what they did the staff kept bringing it into the nursing homes. On November 9, 2020 staff were allowed to work on the Covid floors. The House banned mask mandates of any kind.
Ohio Mike Dewine
In Ohio, 60% of nursing home employees have decided not to get the vaccine as of December 30, 2020. Beginning April 20, 2020, an Executive Order was signed that if a resident tested positive they had 24 hours to let it be known. As of April 10, 2020, not all the nursing home information was known about nursing home deaths and positive tests; seems to be a trend here. But you know what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
https://www.wlwt.com/article/not-all-ohio-nursing-home-deaths-locations-being-disclosed/32110681
https://radio.wosu.org/post/nursing-home-group-supports-decision-disclose-covid-19-deaths-county
Oklahoma Kevin Stitt
OK was late to the draw and waited to make a SAH until April 1, 2020, which was lifted at the end of the month. Trump held a maskless rally in Tulsa on June 20 where Herman Cain contracted the virus and died. Covid cases increased 5 times throughout the whole state. Over ½ of the State’s deaths came from nursing homes. Nursing homes did not have enough PPE or tests. Stitt did not do anything until begged and was highly criticized for not being prepared to protect an obviously high-risk population. Parsons is in over his head and still has yet to make a mask mandate.
South Carolina Henry McMaster
McMaster pushed to fully open schools despite the fact there was a spike in Covid. This was back in early December. This made no sense because it wasn’t safe for anyone over the age of 65 to be out. During this time he tested positive for the virus. In September of 2020, he abruptly cut off all in-person nursing home visits for the second time, the first being in mid-April. Just like everywhere else, nursing ones were hit hard.
https://wach.com/news/local/aarp-south-carolina-with-most-coronavirus-deaths-in-nursing-homes
South Dakota Kristi Noem
Where was Noem’s mask mandate? Oh, wait she NEVER had one. She had a Trump rally over the 4th of July. She was constantly calling out other Governors to let the people take care of themselves. Her own grandmother died in a nursing home in this pandemic. As of December 22, 2020, it was reported that the nursing home death toll was higher than in any other state. At this time more than 40% of the SD Nursing homes had lost at least 1/10 of their population.
Tennessee Bill Lee
Lee flat-out refused to release Covid data numbers to the public when asked in August 2020. He refused to make a SAH order until residents signed a petition. A group of doctors said Lee had the worst handling of the virus in the nation. In December they had the highest rate of infection. Hospitals filled up and patients were sent home to self-treat with oxygen. He never made a mask order. Positive patients were sent back to nursing homes and data was withheld when asked about in April. One nursing home in Gallatin had an outbreak after patients were sent home from the hospital and downplayed it after they called 911. After they tested everyone they found 100 residents and 33 staff members were positive. 20 people died. That’s horrific!
Texas Greg Abbott
Abbott admitted he made a grave mistake by refusing to shut down bars and restaurants when people starting dying in their homes because all the hospitals were full in July 2020. Since Covid is slow-moving it took 2 months for it to spread out of control after Abbott ended the SAH in May. Hospitals were even sending Covid patients home to die. To this day Texas allows nursing homes to accept Covid positive patients. Old, glitchy computer systems corrupted the Covid numbers. Abbott did the bare minimum to control the virus and the whole state paid the price. At least he admitted he was wrong?
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/coronavirus/article244443257.html
https://www.texasobserver.org/nursing-homes-transfers-covid-deaths/
Utah Spencer Cox
Cox is a new Governor. Before that, he was Lt Governor. He was also the head of the COVID 19 Task Force in his state. He was criticized highly for keeping the COVID 19 restrictions when the numbers started looking better. He is rolling out the vaccine right now. There’s a problem though. There’s not enough at long-term care facilities and there’s too much at pharmacies.
Vermont Phil Scott
Scott actually made a SAH order at the end of March after shutting down most of the state throughout the month of March. He shut down the bars before St Patrick’s Day. Despite not making a mask order Scott wore a mask. Although they have a Republican Governor Vermont is Liberal. Still, over half their deaths came from nursing homes. Once again though we see an outbreak that lead to deaths in a Genesis nursing home when they kept a Covid positive patient there without properly quarantining the resident.
https://theintercept.com/2020/12/02/vermont-nursing-home-covid-genesis/
West Virginia Jim Justice
Justice has opened and closed nursing home visits many times. By July 2020 there were more than 56,000 deaths in long-term care between patients and staff, while this doesn’t seem like a lot the state’s population is relatively small.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/west-virginia-governor-announces-168-unreported-covid-19-deaths
Wyoming Mark Gordon
Even after admitting attempting to contain Covid without a mask order had failed Gordon still refused to make one. Wyoming ranks 3rd in the nation for nursing home deaths. To this day they have failed to contain the virus and it is ravaging out of control in nursing homes.
Democratic Governors
California Gavin Newsom
The virus raged out of control in CA despite being 1st to close, last to reopen. They screened people for quality of life before treating them. So people like Emma and us would have been sent home. The hospitals ran out of oxygen and had to turn people away.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewpulrang/2020/04/14/the-disability-community-fights-deadly-discrimination-amid-the-covid-19-pandemic/?sh=43fc7065309c https://www.modernhealthcare.com/hospitals/california-hospitals-prepping-grim-covid-19-choices https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/05/covid-hospitalizations-los-angeles-oxygen/
Colorado Jared Polis
Polis’ executive orders were confusing. How many state laws do they have a direct effect on? They did not track who has it and where. A few attempts have been made to recall Polis over his response, as well. He didn’t do enough to slow the spread. They also claim that he abused his emergency powers. He also was accused of miss-spending the Cares Act Money. He went about it all wrong. He was also accused of discrimination in religious places.
Connecticut Ned Lamont
In Connecticut, the closed nursing homes were reopened as recently as November 2020 to take in Covid patients from hospitals and nursing homes. Cases swelled in nursing homes as Covid patients were admitted, even though they set aside whole floors just for them. 50% of Covid cases in the state were linked to nursing homes. Federal investigators are not tracking these types of homes. They had nowhere to send them so they created nursing homes only for Covid patients. According to NBC ⅓ of all nursing homes across the country had positive cases.
Delaware John Carney
Long-term care facility Genesis Healthcare made an agreement with the Governor to accept Covid patients from the hospitals. 61 patients and 13 staff members contracted Covid and 12 people died.
Hawaii David Ige
A major hospital Maui Memorial in Maui had an outbreak amongst their staff starting in the cancer ward. The Lt Governor claims the government wasn’t told until 15 staff had it. The hospital was not doing temperature checks or requiring people to wear masks. Allegedly they did not have enough PPE. How did the Governor not know or even try to do anything about it?
https://mauinow.com/2020/08/17/breaking-maui-hospital-covid-19-count-rises-to-28/
Illinois JB Pritzker
Covid cases surged in nursing homes by the end of 2020. They did not have enough vaccines and were unable to vaccinate because the elderly could not consent on their own. They had an outbreak at the University of IL Hospital where several people died. If outbreaks happen in hospitals where is the safest place to send nursing home patients? By mid-June 100s of hospital staff had tested positive for the virus. The Wall Street Journal says the CDC has not released information on how many hospital staff has tested positive or died.
https://abc7chicago.com/university-of-illinois-hospital-nurses-coronavirus-chicago-in/6057071/
Kansas Laura Kelly
Kelly was accused of moving too slowly in the beginning. Her plan isn’t focused enough. Hospitals were struggling to handle the surge in November. Testing was almost non-existent and people were dying in both hospitals and nursing homes. They didn’t have the resources to fix this problem in the early days. Vaccine rollout has been slow.
Kentucky Andy Beshear
Republicans in Kentucky had a big gathering in May and almost no one wore masks in an effort to protest masks. One of the featured speakers was a Republican Lawmaker. Republicans basically shot down his restrictions. They made a point of making it almost impossible to restrict how many can go into a restaurant at a time. Phrases like, “This is going to be a second shutdown,” were said. They got mad that there were different restrictions on different things. He attempted to explain that not everything is the same, but it fell on deaf ears. Since KY is a Republican state they had made it clear they were going to limit what he could and couldn’t do. In fact, some of these issues went all the way to the Supreme Court and they ruled in his favor.
https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article247287519.html
Louisiana John Bell Edwards
Edwards thought he could pray Covid away by fasting. Nursing homes were short-staffed due to virus infections. People reported picking up family members to move those who were severely neglected. According to the DOH, 43% of positive state cases came from nursing homes after they accepted infected patients from hospitals and other nursing homes. 38 people died in one nursing home.
Maine Janet Mills
In Maine, there were staff at both a local jail and local nursing home who went to a wedding in August 2020 where many guests got COVID. Many of the people who got sick weren’t even at the wedding. The disease spread like wildfire. Several people died from this outbreak. She was accused of failing nursing homes and at one point The Kittery Nursing home was denied tests by her CDC.
Michigan Gretchen Whitmer
In Michigan, 1 man with Covid symptoms was turned away from 3 hospitals and then died. Whitmer was under hot water for sending Covid positive patients back to nursing homes (who could isolate them). Compared to the National death average this actually worked quite well in Michigan
Minnesota Tim Walz
Walz took forever to get a mask order and won’t even enforce it. It took until May 27, 2020, to change where positive nursing home patients were sent. They had been going back to nursing homes. The data from the nursing homes wasn’t released until July 21, 2020. Every step he took was met with animosity from Paul Gazlka Minority Leader of the MN Senate, he encouraged large gatherings and even got COVID. He insisted on not wearing masks and instead of that he wanted to be first in line for a vaccine. Eric Moterson is working on Impeaching Walz for his handling of the virus.
New Jersey Phil Murphy
Covid deaths and cases in nursing homes have surged in 2021 in New Jersey. The AG found that 53% of total deaths were from nursing homes. When they went into nursing homes they found a makeshift morgue with 12 bodies in one alone. Nursing homes were negligent. Nursing homes didn’t even tell families their loved ones died. That’s not on the Governor!
New Mexico Michelle Lujan Grisham
Grisham is a terrible Governor, she had COVID positive patients sent to Genesis Healthcare, a for-profit chain that has a history of elder abuse. They don't even care about their residents there. Many families were outraged by this decision. Many people have said that from this decision there will be murder and she will get away with it.
Nevada Steve Sisolak
In May of 2020, there was an investigation into a nursing home in Las Vegas because 130 cases had come from it and 49% of the cases had come from patients. As late as August 31, 2020, about ¼ of the nursing homes weren’t regularly submitted to the Federal Government. In October of 2020, they pulled the use of rapid tests stating they weren’t reliable.
North Carolina Roy Cooper
Most staff in the nursing homes are refusing to get the vaccine. More than 1,800 nursing home residents have died since March. One nursing home had an outbreak of 60 cases that increased to over 80 and 3 deaths in a matter of days. The governor’s office had no idea and when they looked into it they found the data had been sent to the wrong county and not the state.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article244164882.html
Oregon Kate Brown
50% of Oregon’s covid deaths are related to nursing homes. 8 nursing home staff members were dead by June 2020 despite the fact state health officials won’t release the true number so they may be undercounted. A nursing home in Roseburg just reported 35 new cases from 1 nursing home. It started out with 1 case in the county and increased to 116 over 3 days with over 300 people quarantined in relation to the schools. Something similar happened in Southern Oregon in November 2020.
Pennsylvania Tom Wolf
In November 2020 schools reclosed and hospitals in multiple counties turned away Covid patients. Many people died in nursing homes without even getting tested because Trump didn’t provide enough tests.
https://nypost.com/2020/12/05/idaho-pennsylvania-texas-hospitals-overwhelmed-by-covid-19/
Rhode Island Gina Raimondo
Raimondo came under national scrutiny for giving nursing homes covid immunity by executive order. She even stopped inspections hoping it would stop the spread, but instead it let nursing homes perpetuate abuse. It cost her a job in Biden's cabinet. It’s not surprising only 3 of the 85 state nursing homes escaped a covid outbreak.
Virginia Ralph Northam
Up until June 19, 2020 names of infected nursing homes were kept secret. As of July 2020 patients were allowed to go back to nursing homes without any testing at all.
Washington Jay Insley
A nursing home failed to report or handle an outbreak in March which ended up having 35 deaths by April. The state is looking at charging them $600k. How was it not caught right away? Did they vaccinate their elderly, why cant the other states? Staff infected a nursing home in December 2020 after they attended a wedding in November 2020.
Wisconsin Tony Evers
Republicans keep trying to overturn Evers’ mask order and opening up the state. In November 2020 alone nearly 300 nursing home residents died! They have seen record numbers of nursing home deaths which still continue to rise to this day!
https://www.milwaukeemag.com/wisconsins-mask-mandate-was-briefly-overturned/
5 Territories
America Samoa D Lemanu Peleti Maura Democrat: America Samoa did not have a chance to deal with Covid because there have been no reported cases there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/us/coronavirus-american-samoa.html
Guam Lou Leon Guerrero Democrat: There weren’t that many positive cases in Guam. However, the restrictions were pretty tight. She just kept testing people over and over again. She also came under fire for saying that the US was “milking” concessions from the Feds for hosting the aircraft full of Covid positive Aircraft Carrier The Theodore Rosevelt in March of 2020. They had a 5,000 person Crew where 1,200 people on board had Covid and one died. This aircraft was there for 2 months.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/11/30/1012732/us-guam-covid-alert-app-exposure-notification/
Puerto Rico Pedro Pielurisi Republican: This is a high-trafficked area as it’s a tourist destination. They went into lockdown in early March 2020 along with a curfew and fines. This, along with their natural isolation, has worked well to control the virus. The only issue they had was with releasing information. Governor turnover caused a vacuum.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/puerto-rico-enacted-strict-covid-measures-it-paid-it-s-n1260998
Northern Mariana Islands Ralph Torres Republican: Torres declared a public health emergency on March 22 and has been able to contain it since.
https://www.nga.org/coronavirus-state-actions/northern-mariana-islands/
US Virgin Islands Albert Bryan Democrat: States with high cases were given travel restrictions and must test with 72 hours of arrival and if they want to opt-out of they will be given the chance to test as soon as they arrive.
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