DeSantis identifies COVID-19 nursing homes. Too bad it’s too little, too late | Editorial
“It’s personal now.”
This is from Jorge Zamanillo, a grieving Miami resident whose elderly mother died of the coronavirus this month at an eldercare facility.
No doubt, it’s been personal for thousands of families in Florida who have been kept in the dark about the health and well-being of elderly moms and dads, aunts and uncles and grandparents in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities — hotspots for the coronavirus.
But on Saturday, these families scored a long-overdue victory. Gov. DeSantis ordered state health officials to release the names of eldercare facilities where cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed among staff and residents. Unfortunately, that’s all the public received. No total number of cases, nor the number of deaths.
Dragged his feet
Unfortunately, this is simply more of his incremental, baby-step approach to Florida’s whole coronavirus crisis. He’s dragged his feet on everything from closing the beaches — some of which he foolishly reopened on Friday — to his eventual stay-at-home order. This narrow release of facilities’ names is just more of the same. He can, and must, do better by the people he was elected to serve.
DeSantis said that when he ordered health officials to release the names, that they were to “do it as soon as possible. It’s not something we want to wait around on.”
Of course, it’s hypocritical for DeSantis to try to suddenly sound pro-active. He did “wait around.”
For weeks, he refused to identify the facilities. He was so adamant that, when the Miami Herald filed suit against the state to get it to name the nursing homes and ALFs, the DeSantis administration cowed the Herald’s now-former legal counsel, Holland & Knight, into dropping the case. The Herald’s case was taken up by another firm, Thomas and LoCicero, and was joined by a coalition of other newspapers and media outlets.
Changed his mind
Why did DeSantis flip-flop?
Perhaps it was the disclosure that one in five deaths from COVID-19 in Florida has occurred in an eldercare facility. Perhaps he’s agreed to grant the eldercare industry the immunity it’s seeking from lawsuits. It would be a mistake to take away this power from aggrieved families. Perhaps it took an in-your-face story.
What became so tragically personal for Jorge Zamanillo, is that his mother Rosa, 90, died of the coronavirus at the eldercare facility, where she had lived for eight years. As reported by Herald Tallahassee bureau chief Mary Ellen Klas, “In four days, Rosa Zamanillo went from singing Cuban ballads and eating well at the Residential Plaza assisted-living facility in Miami, to being unrecognizable by her youngest son.”
Jorge Zamanillo didn’t have a clue that his mother had become deathly ill until the day before she passed away. Yes, she had tested positive for COVID-19, caused by the coronavirus, but she wasn’t showing any symptoms.
That was April 8. On April 10, a hospice doctor called the son and told him that his mother didn’t have long to live. Rosa Zamanillo died a day later.
The only reason we know all of this is because Jorge Zamanillo courageously contacted the Herald with his story. No other family in Florida should have to suffer in confused silence. We still urge readers across the state to tell their stories to the Herald at tips@MiamiHerald.com.
And one more thing: When Sunshine Week, which highlights government efforts to withhold vital information, rolls around next year, pay attention. You never never know when it’s going to be personal.
This story was originally published April 19, 2020 at 5:00 AM.