The devastating shortage of nurses is the main reason COVID-19 led to such a massacre of elderly people in nursing homes and nursing homes, according to a new report.
And the shortage got worse, not better, last year – even though everyone in positions of authority knew exactly about the crisis killed more than 100,000 residents and nursing home workers.
As early as May, 15% of U.S. nursing homes had too few nurses and 17% too few nurses to provide adequate care, reports the nonprofit research group of public interest, based on government data.
Until December? These numbers were up to 19% and 21%.
Geographically, the greatest shortage of nurses and nurses was in the Midwest and the Northwest, reports PIRG. And that’s, by and large, where nursing homes are now seeing the worst mortality rates. the AARP finds.
Many households continue to report a shortage of N95 masks and other personal protective equipment, reports the PIRG. More than 3% of nursing homes, or around 500 across the country, report a hand sanitizer shortage.
As we reported earlier, the AARP has already gotten rid of pretty much everyone involved in managing the industry the operators to regulators to legislators for this fiasco.
Nursing homes hold less than half of 1% of the US population but account for about 25% of all COVID deaths.
In other words, of the 1.3 million Americans in nursing homes last year, it appears that around 8% died from (or with) COVID.
Possibly the only good news is that many people have ripped their elderly family members out of these disaster areas, at least for the holidays. “The total number of residents in all houses fell by 52,908 from November 22nd to December 6th, probably also because families brought their loved ones home before Thanksgiving and the December vacation,” reports PIRG.
The treatment of people in nursing homes was completely incomprehensible. However, we knew from the start that this disease predominantly affects the sick and elderly.
As long ago as 17. March The Italian government reported that 88% of the dead were over 70 years old (and 99% had one or more underlying diseases). The latest numbers from New York City? Healthy people under 65 make up only 0.5% of the dead –about 100 out of 21,000 people.
Compare these numbers with how society has provided money and resources.
The Peterson Foundation estimates that the US government has spent about $ 3.5 trillion on the crisis so far. It will be interesting to see in retrospect how much of this was devoted to protecting the most vulnerable and how much of it was wasted.
Cumbersome factoid: If we had spent all the money on the nursing homes, it would have cost $ 2.7 million for each resident.
But no, we apparently “didn’t have the money” to protect the vulnerable. Of course, it’s not just about money. Despite the simple headlines.
Under the previous administration, the United States The Justice Department opened an investigation in August into states where nursing homes were actually ordered to admit COVID patients. These measures may have caused thousands of unnecessary deaths. These states included Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, whose Governor Andrew Cuomo appeared to have found the time to write a bestselling book about his leadership during the crisis.
As Cuomo recently said on televisionwithout irony: “Incompetent government kills people. More people died in COVID than needed to die. ”
