Citizen Kelly: New IG report blames Gov. Pritzker for 36 veteran deaths at state-run home

CHICAGO (May 10, 2021) - William J. Kelly, host of the "Citizen Kelly Show" is blasting Illinois Gov. Pritzker after a new report from the Illinois Inspector General holds him responsible for the COVID-related deaths of veterans at LaSalle veterans home last November:

“The Inspector General’s report is damning,” Kelly says. “ In his 2018 campaign, Gov. Pritzker accused his GOP opponent of ‘fatal mismanagement’ in a Legionnaires' disease outbreak in a Quincy veterans home but what he has done is much, much worse.”

Kelly says that 36 veterans – a quarter of the home’s residents - died in the outbreak because Gov. Pritzker appointed an unqualified, incompetent political hack to head Illinois Veterans Affairs during a global pandemic. Former State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia was appointed in 2019 by Pritzker and was also accused in the report of delegating all of her responsibilities to an underling.

The report specifically states that no one in the upper levels of leadership at Illinois Veterans Affairs had any infection disease control, long-term care planning, or medical experience whatsoever.

In all, 109 veterans and 116 staff members were infected with COVID last November. LaVia has since resigned.

“You see, wrongful death is what happens when governors like J.B. Pritzker appoint politicians to jobs that require actual experience,” Kelly says. “Little good that does those dead LaSalle veterans and their families now.”

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