From the first frantic weeks of the pandemic, Bridge Michigan reporters held state officials accountable for policies affecting the state’s most vulnerable citizens, the thousands of residents living in nursing homes. It started with frantic calls from families hearing rumors that COVID-19 spreading through centers.
Bridge was first to report the state had no data on nursing home cases and deaths. Its reporting led the state health department to collect and then release weekly updates. Bridge didn’t stop there. Our reporters revealed how Michigan continued to lag other states in reporting, and wrote numerous stories about families not able to extract their parents from COVID-stricken centers or even visit them. Bridge chronicled the disturbing health reports emerging from some of those nursing homes, and later reporting pushed the state to release more detailed information on nursing home cases.