It’s incredibly shameful how these people in northern Maine were treated. I hope they sue!
Governor Mills, Dr. Shah owe the Big Moose Inn and Maplecrest Nursing Home an Apology
(Augusta, ME)—For months, Governor Mills and Dr. Shah have told Mainers that the COVID-19 outbreak at the Maplecrest Nursing Home in Madison was a direct result of a wedding at the Big Moose Inn in Piscataquis County.
In a new report from the Maine CDC (published by the U.S. CDC) about the events surrounding the wedding and the Maplecrest outbreak, Dr. Shah and the Maine CDC have admitted that they cannot prove “a definitive linkage of outbreaks at these facilities to the event.” The report also concludes that staff members at Maplecrest “possibly had exposures outside the facilities.”
Having spent months in daily briefings, press releases, and on national television, holding the Big Moose Inn and Maplecrest up for public ridicule, loss of business, and lawsuits, the Mills administration now admits they cannot prove that these events are connected.
The report also reveals that Shah and Mills changed their theory about how these events are connected, overstated the number of guests present, and understated the steps that the wedding families and the Big Moose Inn took to prevent infections.
The actions of state government have devastated these businesses and the people who rely on them as owners, employees, customers, and patients.
To make such definitive public statements, knowing they could not prove them, is highly irresponsible and not how state government should be representing the people of Maine.
