Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has joined his Illinois colleague Sen. Tammy Duckworth‘s (D-IL) opposition to Nirav Shah seeking the Senate candidacy in Maine, with both lawmakers citing the hopeful’s role in a deadly 2015 Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that occurred while he was at the helm of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Duckworth voiced opposition to Shah possibly replacing former Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner shortly after he announced his candidacy. The congresswoman had called for Shah’s removal from IDPH in 2018 when investigations revealed former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Shah failed to act when they were informed of the outbreak.
“He made a mess of things involving a veterans’ home in Quincy, Illinois,” Durbin said. “Fourteen veterans lost their lives. … To think he’s now aspiring to be the United States senator from Maine, it’s hard to imagine.”
Shah led IDPH from 2015 until 2019, during which time an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, a severe form of pneumonia, broke out in a veterans’ home. An investigation following the outbreak that took the lives of more than a dozen veterans found Shah failed to address issues at the home that allowed bacteria to spread.
“Maine deserves better than someone who put his public image before the safety of our Veterans,” Duckworth posted on X. “Too many of our heroes lost their lives under Nirav Shah’s watch as Illinois Public Health Director. I called for his resignation then, and I strongly oppose his run for Senate now.”
The issue also came up for Shah during his gubernatorial campaign earlier this year, as his competitors — former Maine Attorney General James Tierney and Illinois Democratic state Sen. Cristina Castro — held a virtual news conference criticizing his handling of the 2015 outbreak.
DUCKWORTH CALLS FOR MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE TO DROP PLATNER REPLACEMENT BID OVER 2015 ACTIONS
Shah has acknowledged he did not effectively communicate the problems at the home to the public.
After leaving his post in Illinois, Shah went on to direct the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention until 2023, during which he became a prominent public face of the state’s COVID-19 response, before later serving as principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Biden administration.