On Thursday afternoon, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, Dr. Rachel Levine held her daily coronavirus briefing.
News Talk 104.1 as first reported earlier this week EXCLUSIVE: Monroe County Coroner tells Gov. Wolf, Sec. Levine should resign.
With that as the backdrop Secretary Levine was asked the following this afternoon:
Question: Sec. Levine, earlier this week the Monroe County Coroner expressed frustration with you and the D.O.H. in a letter to Gov. Wolf and the letter sought your resignation; what is your reaction to the letter?
The entire response offered by Dr. Rachel Levine in response to News Talk 104.1 is available here.
Full transcript of Secretary Levine
Well, um I have actually seen the specific letter.
Um, we are actually working with the county coroners.
We had a phone call last week um, with them we’re going to be arranging another phone call, uh to try to make sure that uh with the coroners association with the president and executive director and other coroners uh that we, that we work with very very closely with those excellent professionals.
Uh, in terms of asking for my resignation, I always serve at the pleasure of the Governor and will continue uh to serve under his leadership as the Secretary of Health.
News Talk 104.1 has confirmed County Coroners are being denied the ability to certify COVID-19 deaths by the Department of Health.
The DOH legal counsel has come up with an interpretation of the Coroner’s Law, citing the need to be a certified medical professional as to why County Coroners cannot certify COVID-19 deaths.
There has already been a major revision of more than 200 deaths taken off the Pennsylvania total based on flawed reporting into the EDRS system.
This is an interesting dynamic to say the least since Coroners are able to certify deaths at a murder scene but not “novel coronavirus” which is echoed nearly everyday.
Is there conflicting messaging coming from the Department of Health in regard to COVID-19 deaths?
News Talk 104.1 has obtained an e-mail exchange between a front line medical worker and the DOH that occurred in recent weeks.
After talking to our Director yesterday, I received some information on the correction of the COVID19 positives and negatives.
Test results should not be reported on a Death Certification.
When saying COVID19 test negative or test positive, that is reporting a test result.
The Cause of Death is to be condition(s) or disease(s) that are the medical certifier’s professional medical opinion as to the decedent’s cause of death.
This e-mail was sent by a staff member in the office of DOH Bureau of Health Statistics and Registries.
So why, when asked today by News Talk 104.1 did Secretary Levine potentially contradict what her own department is sending to front line health care workers and facilities?
News Talk 104.1 has been asking about irregularities in the death numbers for nearly a month.
Lycoming County Coroner Chuck Kiessling has also been addressing this issue since his county previously had two deaths listed as COVID-19 when in fact , that was not the case.
EXCLUSIVE: Lycoming County Coroner Kiessling challenges Sec. Levine on COVID-19 death reporting
As of today, Lycoming County has four COVID-19 deaths all in nursing or personal care home patients.
Speaker of the House Mike Turzai published a letter Wednesday with statistics provided by Dr. Levine regarding COVID-19 case and death numbers.
11% of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 (341) had zero comorbidities at the time of death.
84.4% of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 (341) had between (1-4) comorbidities at the time of death.
So again, as asked by News Talk 104.1 of Secretary Levine Thursday:
Question: Sec. Levine, yesterday you provided legislative leaders details on COVID-19 cases, including 84.4% of the 3,106 deaths had at least 1 and as many as 4 comorbid conditions at the time of death; is it fair to say those people died of something else and tested positive or were probable for COVID-19?
Secretary Levine, has also already conceded that nearly all COVID-19 cases recover, even those in hospital.
QUESTION: And then also our last question today is from News Talk 104.1 currently there are 50,957 positive cases. And as of today 2,518 the hospital does that mean that 4,377 cases have recovered?
Secretary Levine: “I’m going to have trouble with calculations and data off the top of my head really as we look at the number of patients that we have had over time and we know the mortality rate and we know those who passed away, you know, the majority of those patients have recovered.
We are not able to contact all of the 50,000 patients over time to know exactly when they recovered and so it’s really challenging for us to give recovery rates, but we’re very pleased that the majority of patients that have had COVID-19 have recovered.”
Governor Wolf and Secretary Levine held a press briefing Friday to address 24 counties moving from Red to Yellow status.
Additionally, they provided guidance for a group of 13 counties moving from Red to Yellow on May 15.
They also addressed the updated Stay-at-Home order extended to June 4 for counties in Red; which was announced in the evening hours of Thursday by the Wolf Administration.
The Stay-at-Home order extended to June 4 coupled with counties remaining in Red status set off a fire storm of counties defying the Order of the Governor.
Beaver, Lebanon and Dauphin counties have all said they plan on reopening in defiance of the Orders of Governor Wolf.
From the PAPost,org article, “In addition, sheriffs in Perry and Cumberland posted Facebook notices stating that they would not be a part of enforcing business shutdown orders.”
These Red counties trying to move to yellow resemble the colonists fleeing England in 1620 for the freedoms afforded by coming to America.
Moreover the founding of the Commonwealth by William Penn in 1681 to pursue religious freedoms.
Henry Lowman of the Lincoln Institute penned an Op-Ed Sunday calling upon Secretary Levine to resign or be fired by Governor Wolf.
Lowman also hosts Lincoln Radio Journal, News Talk 104.1 is an affiliate stattion.
So the fundamental question is, has Pennsylvania been shut down over 341 deaths in an already vulnerable population that was failed to be protected in a timely manner?
If so, with a Stay-at-Home Order in place until June 4, and the death count rising with everyone already staying home, what will change?
Stay tuned to News Talk 104.1 & 1600 WEJS and talkwilliamsport.com for developments on this story.
The reporting of News Talk 104.1 on this topic is available here:
May 6
EXCLUSIVE: Monroe County Coroner tells Gov. Wolf, Sec. Levine should resign
May 1
EXCLUSIVE: Coroner Conundrum
April 24
EXCLUSIVE: Coroners Kiessling & Lynn Provide COVID-19 Update on News Talk 104.1
April 23
EXCLUSIVE: Coroner Kiessling Provides Local COVID-19 Update on News Talk 104.1
April 23
EXCLUSIVE: Coroner Kiessling requests information from Dept. of Health
April 22
EXCLUSIVE: Sec. Levine responds to News Talk 104.1 on Coroner concerns and COVID-19 funding
April 22
BREAKING NEWS: Coroner Kiessling issues Wednesday Statement
April 21
EXCLUSIVE: Lycoming County Coroner Kiessling joins News Talk 104.1 on COVID-19 death reporting
April 21
EXCLUSIVE: Lycoming County Coroner Kiessling challenges Sec. Levine on COVID-19 death reporting
