Up to half of Europe's covid-19 fatalities were residents of long-term care facilities, WHO says

[denem]

Source: Washington Post

As many as half of those who have died of covid-19 in Europe were residents of long-term care facilities, the World Health Organization’s regional European office announced Thursday.

“This is an unimaginable human tragedy,” Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional European director, said in a Thursday briefing, citing the latest estimates of deaths in long-term care centers.

“This pandemic has shone a spotlight on the overlooked and undervalued corners of our society,” he said. “Across the European region, long-term care has often been notoriously neglected. But it should not be this way.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/04/22/coronavirus-latest-news-2/

[lark]

1. We have no idea how bad it is here since no one can get in to these places to monitor them

Are they fully staffed, are the staff wearing protective gear, do the patients get masks and gloves, are their areas being kept sanitary, are they getting the care they need, are they getting their meds regularly? I feel so heavy hearted for anyone who has a parent or loved one living in these places.

Take care.

[FarPoint]

8. We won't know essentially...

Many of the Nursing Homes are owned by corporate greedy types...tRump takes care of them...so, they will help cover up deaths by COVID and allege natural causes or something like that...

[lark]

9. Freaking awful and already happening.

Federal government is refusing to release the deaths from nursing homes, because it would be awful and many would be removed immediately and his donors wouldn't like that. Better to let them die and the profits continue is the oligarch way of thinking.

[tanyev]

2. Sad.

I wonder what chunk of the fatalities were health care workers, first responders, food service workers, etc.--people who got infected because of their job, not through anything they did in their personal life.

[MineralMan]

3. In Minnesota so far, 70% of our fatalities came from such facilities.

People who already have serious health issues and who are old seem to be most likely to succumb to COVID-19.

[denem]

4. Herd Immunity / Culling the Herd

waste of space / waste of time /waste of money
Aktion T4!

[MineralMan]

5. There could be some of that, but it's more like just ignoring them

because they don't matter, at least in the case of nursing home patients.

Then, there are the outbreaks in workplaces like meat packing businesses. They weren't discovered until there were too many cases to be ignored. Nobody cares about the people who work in such places, so no attention was being paid. Same with prisons and jails. We only hear about outbreaks in such case when there are too many to ignore.

There's no thinking about herd immunity in such situations. It's simple out of sight; out of mind.

[appalachiablue]

6. T-4 Programme euthanasia, eugenics monsters

[flibbitygiblets]

7. Rachel is the only one hammering this home every night. There's no PLAN to deal with this.

Nursing home residents are sitting ducks, and NOTHING is being done. Nursing home staff typically NOT nurses, but more like aides with far less training than regular medical facilities. They don't have PPE either, for the most part. Who is there to backfill for them when they are exposed or have symptoms? And most of them are exposed, almost by definition!

If I had a loved one in a nursing home, I'd get them out like months ago. Not everyone has that option though.

This is a national SHAME. "Family Values" people, indeed. "Pro Life" indeed.

I am ill over this.

[LudwigPastorius]

10. The GOP sees this stat and thinks,...

"If we just keep letting Trump do what he does, our whole funding-Social-Security-and-Medicare problem may fix itself!"

[Warpy]

11. While their families were not equipped to care for therm

I doubt any of those families wanted to lose an elder to a plague.

This is incredibly sad.