Denver City Wire

Conservative Twitter personality Mr T 2, a small government advocate with more than 18,000 followers, recently shared a report showing that 1 out of every 25 people living in nursing homes in Colorado died from COVID-19 in Dec. 2020 and questioned why Gov. Polis was not held accountable for those deaths.

"Remember how Governor Jared Polis(D) failed people in Colorado nursing homes but was never really held accountable for it? 1 out of every 25 nursing home residents in Colorado died from COVID in just the month of December 2020 under Gov Jared Polis’ watch," Mr T 2 wrote in a Sept. 10 Twitter post.

Colorado had the highest rate of COVID deaths in nursing homes in the country in December 2020, according to The Gazette. Although Polis attempted to control the surge of nursing home deaths early in the pandemic, calling in the National Guard and forcing residents who tested positive into long-term isolation, the death rate continued to rise until it was around double the national average. 

One quarter of nursing home residents in Colorado died in Dec. 2020 alone. During that winter spike, Polis' health officials switched to a new firm to supply coronavirus testing kits. The new company, which was run by a 25-year-old college dropout, provided faulty tests that would display false negative and false positive results, exacerbating the fear and confusion of Colorado's nursing home residents.

“It was scary,” said Yvonne Myers, the health services administrator for Fort Collins-based Columbine Health Systems. “We were putting someone we thought as sick in a wing with sick people. We moved them, and now the potential is to give them COVID when they actually didn’t have it.” Polis directed nursing homes to stop using tests from that company in January 2021.

In December of 2020, The Denver Post reported that more than half of the 235 nursing homes in Colorado were experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks.

In April 2020, Polis called in almost 70 members of Colorado's National Guard to test residents at nursing homes and long-term care facilities, according to a release.

“Our Colorado National Guard warriors are trained and equipped to fight the war on COVID-19,” The Adjutant General of Colorado U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Mike Loh said. “They are providing necessary capability and capacity to help our local and state partners to save lives in senior care facilities across our state.” The National Guard members tested residents at facilities in El Paso, Adams, and Broomfield counties.