Critics Lash Pennsylvania GOP House Speaker After Questionable COVID-19 Post
Twitter critics piled on Pennsylvania’s Republican speaker of the House Saturday after he tweeted the percentage of people who died after contracting COVID-19 who had underlying health issues, as part of a “Reopening Pennsylvania” campaign.
The stats posted by Rep. Mike Turzai ended with urging the state to get back to business “safely, compassionately” and “urgently.”
People on Twitter appeared to interpret the tweet in the worst possible way: that people who died after coronavirus were already sick, so it’s not a huge concern if more of them die as the state reopens.
Turzai’s Chief of Staff Neal Lesher told HuffPost in an email that the tweet is “simply reporting public health data that the Pennsylvania Department of Health should be reporting to the public, but is not.” The data “exposes the vulnerability of Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable population in nursing homes, personal care facilities, and assisted living facilities,” he added.
“For anyone to suggest that the Speaker does not care about our vulnerable populations is either playing politics or not paying attention to what’s going on,” Lesher insisted.
The Pennsylvania death toll was already up 582 Saturday from the outdated Wednesday data Turzai used in the tweet.
Turzai unveiled a bill Thursday with extra protections for nursing homes, following the deaths of more than 2,300 residents in Pennsylvania nursing or personal care facilities.
But he’s also a staunch backer of reopening the state as quickly as possible, and has blasted as “outrageous” the possibility that schools might not open in the fall.
— Speaker Mike Turzai (@RepTurzai) May 9, 2020
The underlying health conditions cited by Turzai in his Reopening Pennsylvania tweet are relatively common among Americans, which several comments pointed out. Other critics found it a strange message from a party associated with the “pro-life” movement. “Over 65?” one meme asked slyly. “Consider becoming a MAGA martyr.”
1/3 of Pennsylvanians have high blood pressure. Should 1/3 be ready to die because you’re all incompetent? pic.twitter.com/oVicQobAKA
— Alex Leo (@AlexMLeo) May 9, 2020
Well that escalated quickly... pic.twitter.com/1GvCE6gWI7
— Iridescent Ashes (@IridescentAshes) May 9, 2020
Are you trying to say people with pre-existing conditions should die so you can go to Denny's, Mike?
Cause that's what I'm reading.— Brian, the unforecasted storm (@TheBrianest) May 9, 2020
Gotta love GOP eugenics.
— Lucy Kwiatek (@MandHF) May 9, 2020
— Rebecca Lynn (@Bex_Lyn) May 9, 2020
Please stop arguing that if you've got health issues & pre-existing conditions your life is somehow less important, and can be spent to save an economy.
— Nicole 🌼🌼🌼 (@idealskeptic) May 9, 2020
I fixed it for ya, Mike. pic.twitter.com/YUyVTvtF8S
— Tell Gov Wolf: restore $ to PA Council on the Arts (@jwbussmann) May 9, 2020
So, you’re saying people with these issues are expendable? In PA, almost 4 million people have hypertension & over 1.5 million have diabetes....
— Vito Quaglia (@LombardiTime) May 9, 2020
These people had health issues that they struggled with, and lived with!, for many years until coronavirus killed them. Not only do you dismiss their very lives, you imply that means somehow COVID isn’t a threat?
So much for pro-life.— Jeremy Wilcox (@jwilcox79) May 9, 2020
Turzai announced in January that he is not seeking re-election this year, and will instead pursue unspecified work in the private sector.
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