Families deserve answers
We can never forget the scores of coronavirus victims at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home or their grieving families.
And that’s why it’s so important we get to the bottom of the scandal that left so many dead and suffering.
Gov. Charlie Baker says he’s “uncomfortable” talking about what led to the outbreak at the veterans’ home because it’s the subject of separate ongoing investigations, including one led by former federal prosecutor Mark Pearlstein.
“I’m waiting for Mark’s report,” Baker said on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of back and forth in what happened and that’s understandable given the enormity of the tragedy there, but I’m waiting for his report.”
Too bad.
Imagine how the families of those who died and got sick feel right now. They didn’t have time to wait. They want and deserve answers, and not just from a state-appointed investigator.
The “back and forth” Baker is talking about are allegations by many of those involved in the soldiers’ home tragedy that the coronavirus outbreak could have been prevented or at least contained by proper management of the facility.
Baker and state officials have already found a scapegoat and that’s Bennett
Walsh, the superintendent of the soldiers’ home who was placed on leave after news broke in late March about the number of deaths and cases at the facility.
Walsh was a politically connected appointee who had no health care experience when Baker and the board of the soldiers’ home tapped him to run it.
Baker claims that he first found out about the seriousness of the problems at the Holyoke veterans’ home in late March, right before the first news reports appeared about it.
But Walsh, through his attorney, is fighting back, alleging that he kept his boss, Veterans Services Secretary Francisco Urena, and other state officials fully informed of the outbreak when it happened. Urena, by the way, still has his job.
Walsh’s attorney, William Bennett, provided documents to back his claims and says it was Walsh’s openness about the problems there, especially a conversation he had with Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, that led to his suspension.
“State officials were livid that Walsh had talked to local officials about the situation at the Soldiers’ Home without their prior approval,” Bennett said in a statement on Tuesday. “It triggered an unusually heated response from state officials that resulted in his suspension. I believe this is why he was suspended and placed on leave.”
The attorney’s most troubling allegation is that state officials gave misleading and incomplete information about the outbreak to a local media outlet that first inquired about the situation in Holyoke.
“On March 28, 2020, HSH received a press inquiry from Channel 22,” Bennett said. “This inquiry raised several issues, including the fact that there was a death at the Soldiers’ Home. Walsh was instructed not to respond.”
And when state officials did respond to the inquiry, they neglected to confirm there was a death at the home, according to Bennett.
“This failure to inform the public that a veteran had died because of Covid-19 was the action of state officials, not Superintendent Walsh,” he said.