Duckworth opposes candidate to replace Platner: ‘Maine deserves better’

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) on Thursday urged Democratic Maine Senate candidate Nirav Shah to end his newly launched campaign, reviving prior criticism of his handling of a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak while he led Illinois’ public health department.

“Maine deserves better than someone who put his public image before the safety of our Veterans,” Duckworth wrote on the social platform X. “Too many of our heroes lost their lives under Nirav Shah’s watch as Illinois Public Health Director.”

Duckworth had called on Shah, who led the Illinois Department of Public Health from 2015 to 2019, to resign in 2018 following investigations into an outbreak at the Illinois Veterans’ Home that killed at least 13 veterans and sickened dozens more.

“There was definitive evidence that a serious public health crisis was underway at the veterans’ home in Quincy in 2015,........

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