Dupage Policy Journal

An inspector general report detailing the leadership shortcomings that led to COVID-19 claiming 36 lives at the LaSalle Veterans' Home last year was released last week, and lawmakers are disappointed with Pritzker and his administration. 

Several Republican representatives gave statements after the report's release, including House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs), who said that the IG report was "damning and heartbreaking."

"[Pritzker's] hand-picked agency director took a hands-off approach to managing the crisis," Durkin said. "Gov. Pritzker and his administration failed to lead and failed our veterans."

The report found that it took leadership almost two weeks to respond to notification that positive COVID tests were surfacing in the veterans' home, and in that almost two weeks 10 died; and it took Pritzker six weeks to deploy National Guard support. 

The minority speaker criticized Pritzker's response time, saying that he should have leapt into action at the first positive test. 

"The result was the tragic loss of 36 of our nation's heroes," Durkin said. "[...] This epic failure of leadership didn't start on Nov. 1 when the first veteran tested positive. It started months earlier when the governor did not act to ensure that our state's veteran homes were prepared for the outbreak."

The Department of Veterans Affairs should have foreseen the likelihood of a devastating outbreak, Durkin said, and should have known of its own leadership shortcomings after the 2017 Legionnaire's Disease outbreak at the Quincy home. 

Former VA Director Linda Chapa LaVia was one of many lawmakers at the time to visit Quincy and take its shortcomings into their campaign platforms. 

"The governor's lack of oversight and his agency's incompetence created this crisis," Durkin said. "There were many failures along the road that led to this tragedy."