Covid Nursing Home Death Charges Mulled by Mass. High Court

Lawyers representing two former nursing home managers were grilled on Wednesday in a Massachusetts high court case over the Covid-related deaths of 76 resident veterans at the beginning of the pandemic.

A decision in the case could determine whether nursing home leaders are bound by the same responsibilities not to commit neglect or mistreatment as direct caretakers. A lower court ruled that a superintendent and medical director don’t count as caretakers under a Massachusetts law protecting residents from abuse.

“People are dehydrated. People are starving,” Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt said during oral argument. “You’re really running an uphill battle” trying ...