BREAKING: Auditor General slams Pritzker administration over 36 LaSalle Veterans' Home deaths...Pritzker blames Republicans

I have a new story up this morning on the new report released by the Illinois Auditor General.

The administration threw former IDVA Chief of Staff Tony Kolbeck under the bus for not disclosing the severity of the outbreak, but the Auditor General says it was IDPH that didn’t act:

Although the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) officials were informed of the increasing positive cases almost on a daily basis by the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs (IDVA) Chief of Staff, IDPH did not identify and respond to the seriousness of the outbreak. It was the IDVA Chief of Staff who ultimately had to request assistance. The IDVA Chief of Staff inquired about a site visit and about rapid tests (November 9th), and inquired about getting antibody treatments (November 11th) for LaSalle Veterans’ Home residents. From the documents reviewed, IDPH officials did not offer any advice or assistance as to how to slow the spread at the Home, offer to provide additional rapid COVID-19 tests, and were unsure of the availability of the antibody treatments for long-term care settings prior to being requested by the IDVA Chief of Staff.

Asked about the report and the outbreak this morning, Pritzker blamed Republicans.

“We were working against Republican elected officials who told people to defy mitigation efforts,” Pritzker said. “We told people that they needed to follow those mitigations, but Republicans told them that they need not wear masks. They told people that they didn’t need to get vaccinated. They told people that COVID wasn’t serious. Those lies put people’s lives at risk, especially the most vulnerable. Even as my team and I worked 18 hours a day for 9 months straight to fight them.”

The vaccine, of course, wasn’t available to anyone in November 2020.

Here’s the full 154-page report.

I have a meeting downtown today, so I’ll try to update it this afternoon.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments. patrick@theillinoize.com.