Nursing homes, veterans' homes are national epicenters of Covid-19 (STAT)
Nursing homes, veterans’ homes are national epicenters of Covid-19
By SUNIL PARIKH MAY 8, 2020 Sunil Parikh is an infectious disease physician at the Yale School of Medicine and an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health.
...the overlooked epicenter of the pandemic is our nation’s nursing homes, veterans’ homes, and other long-term care facilities. At the end of April, with data available from 30 states, in one-third of them more than 40% of the statewide Covid-19 deaths were in long-term care facilities. The plight of the elderly in this pandemic should come as no surprise. This was expected from reports as the pandemic spread across the globe and from what unfolded in the King County, Washington, nursing home tragedy that began in late February.
It is past time to focus the full weight of our testing, supply chain for personal protective equipment, and workforce strengthening efforts to nursing homes, veterans’ homes, and other long-term care facilities. Recent reports in the New England Journal of Medicine and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report detail just how rapidly and widely older Americans are being affected...The current widespread strategy of testing only individuals who are symptomatic for Covid-19 won’t curb this pandemic, especially in these settings. Rapidly increasing the capacity for testing of all residents and prioritizing long-term care facilities for delivery of personal protective equipment is a moral imperative.
As a physician who specializes in infectious diseases and as an epidemiologist, I have seen the terrible effects of Covid-19 among hospitalized patients and in my state’s long-term care facilities. While local and state public health departments have been doing herculean work to combat the pandemic, I am dismayed at the long-standing absence of a national strategic focus on nursing homes. It was not until April 30 that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service announced an independent commission to focus on long-term care facilities, and the task force is not expected to meet until late May.
... All nursing home workers must be provided with the protective equipment they need. Enough Covid-19 tests should be made available to test all residents and staff, especially if a single case is present in the facility. The leadership and staff should be supported with training on how to reconfigure their facilities so that infected individuals are separated from residents who have not tested positive. Facilities not yet affected must be provided with infection-control training, sufficient work-force support to make sure this remains the case, and strict policies for staff screening should be mandated. Workers should be financially supported so they do not have to work in multiple facilities to make ends meet, which would limit the spread of Covid-19 from one facility to another.
More here
https://www.statnews.com/2020/05/08/nursing-homes-veterans-homes-national-epicenters-covid-19/
There is no national strategy because the GOP does not want one. The core belief of that party is hatred for government. If you hate government, there is no expectation or responsibility to run it in an effective manner. Government power is sought only for the largesse it enables you to dispense to your inner circle.
