Rauner’s Crisis Goes National – Fox News Profiles Quincy Home Scandal

State Journal-Register Demands Answers on Six-Day Delay in Informing Public about Outbreak 

Over the holiday break, FOX News’ Special Report profiled the Legionnaire’s outbreak at the Quincy Veterans Home and Governor Bruce Rauner’s administration’s response to the outbreak. The segment focuses, in part, on the six-day gap between when Rauner’s administration knew of the outbreak and when the public was informed. Fox News spoke with Steve French who described calling the home after hearing of the outbreak only to find out his mother had already passed. 

Watch the segment here.

WBEZ previously spoke with one infectious disease expert who called the delay “mind boggling” and “inexcusable.” In Illinois, the State Journal-Register said the six-day gap needed explanation as “staff and family could have taken preventative steps if they were aware of the outbreak.” The paper concluded:

“The questions about the state’s response to the outbreaks, as well as how transparently they were handled, must be answered. The appropriate people need to be held responsible if this outbreak could have been better contained and the public been made aware sooner. The public must demand answers on behalf of our veterans and their families, who sacrifice so much for this country. They deserve to be treated better than they have been here.”

So far, Rauner has yet to explain his administration’s delayed response. And people are starting to notice.

“Governor Rauner has had years to explain his administration’s botched response to the Quincy outbreak but opted for silence,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “In 2015, Bruce Rauner’s administration inexplicitly withheld information from the public about the outbreak. He needs to come clean now.”