Eastern Wayne Today

In a recent radio spot on WJR AM 760’s The Frank Beckmann Show, Sen. Peter J. Lucido (R-Shelby Township) shared his insight on a recent bill aimed at helping nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Sometimes we need a little tender, loving care for the Greatest Generation that ever lived,” Lucido said in the YouTube video of the interview. “I had the chance to see how the care workers, which are great workers, and the nursing facilities are doing the best that they can under the conditions as they can.”

When the coronavirus pandemic began, Lucido said that the question began to arise about whether the appropriate standard of care was being met for the senior citizens. 

“Bringing a COVID diseased patient into a healthy setting — these are compromised immune systems that most of the individuals have because of their age and their organs — you’re putting them at serious risk, and there is nothing that supports this; to the contrary,” Lucido said on the radio program.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s inability to produce data and information supporting her approach to caring for seniors in nursing homes has been frustrating to Lucido and other conservative senators and representatives.

“We hear that the numbers are going up, but I cannot even rely on the data,” Lucido told Beckmann. “When you don’t get the data to the legislators to make decisions, you are really making decisions in the dark.” 

According to a recent bill passed in the Senate, Lucido said, there must be a completely separate facility designated to care for coronavirus patients. Otherwise, they must turned away until they can be cared for properly. 

“If I had a loved one in a nursing home facility and I can’t get access to my loved one and they can’t come outside because those are the rules that the governor put in place, the frustration level is beyond anyone's imagination with the families that I have sat with,” Lucido said on the radio program.