According to a report from ProPublica, state and county officials failed at checking the status of Northshore Clinical Labs and its COVID-19 testing efforts. The article written and published Monday, by journalist Anjeanette Damon shows that some people tried to sound the alarm on Northshore's allegedly negligent operations, with very little attention. According to the report, the company missed 96% of PCR cases, but that wasn't the only problem with it.
"The timing was perfect for Northshore because there was a huge demand for testing, government managers needed something quick to meet the deadline," says ProPublica's journalist Anjeanette Damon. The quick solution to meet a deadline, provided by Northshore clinical labs, missed results most of the time, according to a study done but the Nevada State Public Health Lab. Scientists noticed red flags back in November, and they say they tried to alert Northshore Clinical Labs, county and state officials, with no success.
"There was a concern on part of the state and health district, if they stopped Northshore from testing they would have no more testing," says Damon.
in a statement Washoe County says:
"What we knew at the time was that Northshore Labs was licensed by the state to conduct COVID-19 testing and was already doing so for the school district and UNR. They ramped up to accommodate our community-testing needs, but discontinued PCR testing when it proved to be unreliable. The accurate antigen testing they were able to provide filled a need in our community."
Sending people back to work, school or travel, while sick, wasn't the only problem. The report also shows that Northshore didn't have the proper license to operate statewide, their labs in Chicago did not have a good track record, and at testing sites in Nevada, employees didn't have proper protective equipment or a safe environment to work. Fraud in billing was also being noticed.
"This company came to town and used existing political relationships to fast track their license through state government and to use connections to find ins with these government managers," says Damon.
The Governors Office sent us a statement saying: "As it has throughout the pandemic, the State has worked to ensure services could be delivered to Nevadans during the COVID-19 pandemic. The State’s COVID-19 response coordinator worked with Northshore Clinical, which was set to start a testing program with the City of Henderson, to ensure services would remain uninterrupted and to connect Nevadans to testing during a time of great need.
Throughout the pandemic, the state of Nevada has worked to remove barriers and make services available to Nevadans while working through existing regulatory and licensing processes to move expeditiously without cutting corners. State employees continue to work tirelessly on behalf of Nevadans, and the state will use lessons learned from across the pandemic to make investments and strengthen Nevada's public health systems moving forward. The Governor has not had any conversations with Peter Palivos about Northshore Clinical operations."
According to ProPublica's report, Northshore contracted with Greg and Angelo Palivos, brothers with deep ties to both Chicago and Las Vegas, to build clientele and manage operations. Their father, Peter Palivos, is a prolific contributor to Nevada political campaigns and close enough with Gov. Steve Sisolak that the two met regularly in the early days of the governor's administration.
The original report from ProPublica can be found here. Northshore Labs Tested Across Nevada. Its COVID Tests Didn’t Work. — ProPublica
