Cases Settled: 2 Ex-Officials of MA Veterans Home Where 76 Died in the Pandemic Avoid Jail Time; Oklahoma Had Some of the Most 'excess' deaths During the First Year of the COVID Pandemic, and other C-Virus related stories

Cases settled: 2 ex-officials of veterans home where 76 died in the pandemic avoid jail time

Two former officials of a Massachusetts veterans home where at least 76 people died during the COVID-19 pandemic will avoid jail time in the case

Two former officials of a veterans home in Massachusetts where at least 76 people died in one of the nation's worst COVID-19 outbreaks in a long-term care facility settled their criminal case Tuesday without having to go to jail.

Bennett Walsh, the former superintendent of the Veterans’ Home in Holyoke, and Dr. David Clinton, the home's former medical director, were facing five counts of criminal neglect after the Massachusetts’ highest court overruled a lower court judge last year and reinstated the charges.

Theirs was the first criminal case brought in the country against anyone connected to nursing homes deaths during the pandemic.

Prosecutors had sought guilty pleas and three years probation on the charges including one year of home confinement. They cited the bad conditions and lack of staffing at the facility and the need for a sentence that "merits real consequences."

But defense attorneys argued the court had to take into account the fact that this was in the early days of the pandemic when the dangers of the disease were poorly understood and the facility, like many nursing homes at the time, was hamstrung by a lack of staffing and limited testing. They also argued that Walsh raised the alarm about conditions at the home but that those warnings didn't go up the chain of command. --->READ MORE HERE

Oklahoma had some of the most 'excess' deaths during the first year of the COVID pandemic:

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, an additional 573,000 people died of all causes in the United States, compared to the number of deaths expected under normal circumstances.

This is what the U.S. Census Bureau refers to as "excess mortality," or deaths from any cause above what is expected from recent mortality trends.

There were significant variations in the excess mortality rate in each state, as well as based on age, sex and race and ethnicity, according to newly released Census research.

Oklahoma, along with other southern states, had some of the highest excess mortality rates in the country.

Here's what we know.

What is 'excess mortality?'

Excess mortality is the number of extra people who died during a crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to expected mortality rates under normal circumstances.

Excess mortality can include those who died from the coronavirus and those who died during the pandemic but not necessarily because of it.

According to the Census Bureau, if the COVID-19 pandemic had not occurred, the expected national mortality rate for that year was 9.3 people per 10,000 per month. Instead, the mortality rate observed was 11.1 per 10,000, meaning an extra 1.8 people per 10,000 died per month. --->READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:

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USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates

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YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates

NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest

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