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1/4 Covid Deaths Are in Nursing Homes

35 points by frlnBorg 6y ago

mynegation 6y ago
This number is for USA. For Canada (as of 7th of May) 82% of deaths have been in long term care [1] [1] https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/05/07/82-of-canadas-covid-19-deaths-have-been-in-long-term-care.html https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/05/07/82-of-ca...
lsllc 6y ago
Here's another article (May 26th) with stats as of May 22th that claims 42% of C19 deaths are from assisted living: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2020/05/26/nursing-homes-assisted-living-facilities-0-6-of-the-u-s-population-43-of-u-s-covid-19-deaths/#9427a4874cdb https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2020/05/26/nursin... In a number of states its a much higher percentage.
cityofdelusion 6y ago
The United States needs to take a long, hard look at the current culture of dumping the elderly into a nursing home. From what I understand, there are many cultures that instead take in the elderly into their own homes or try to keep them in their own home. I remember reading a good book on the subject, _Being Mortal_ by Dr. Gawande, a few years back. It was an eye-opener to the realities of how we treat end-of-life care in the U.S.
- glofish 6y ago
  not sure why you think this is a US problem, in other countries these ratios are even higher it is a developed world problem simply put the way people live/work is not suited to multi-generational families - I wish it were
  - ianai 6y ago
    Agreed. Blaming one another isn’t constructive. Framing it as a needed cultural change goes further.
- nikolay 6y ago
  I think it's much worse in Europe.
- rowanG077 6y ago
  I'm not sure this is feasable. Assuming a family where both adults work it doesn't really seem possiblee to handle this. In the worst case you will have 4 elderly people to handle. You also have to take into account that modern medicine extends the time these elderly people need care significantly.
- battery423 6y ago
  So you are saying i have to take care of my parents? Why?
awillen 6y ago
I don't think nursing homes are as terrible as they're made out to be, at least not as a general concept. The issue, in my view, is much like the issue with private prisons - you have a highly vulnerable population with little recourse against the people in charge, because those people have so much control over residents' lives. There should be much greater regulation along with frequent inspections and a mandate that residents have information in their rooms about how to report issues directly to the government. Those things obviously wouldn't help with the coronavirus issues at present, but having that type of government infrastructure involved with nursing homes would have put a lot of pieces in place to allow for a more consistent and coherent response when we started seeing Covid cases. Of course we also needed PPE and testing en masse at nursing homes early on, so maybe it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
- dnautics 6y ago
  "you have a highly vulnerable population with little recourse against the people in charge, because those people have so much control over residents' lives." Isn't this also true for non-private prisons?
- duckMuppet 6y ago
  There already is "greater regulation".. In fact in NY the nursing homes themselves pleaded with the governor to not force the return of these COVID positive individuals back to the nursing homes. The governor of NY actually scrubbed his order from the state website sending these infected patients from hospitals back to nursing homes and assisted living facilities. You can use whatever asinine ideas You like to protect your stance on big government. Not enough government wasn't the problem here, the government was essentially sending smallpox blankets into these at risk communities. If those people voted blue or were one of the protected classes, the access media would be all over this.
taeric 6y ago
This actually sounds low, from the other sources I was seeing. At one point, I could have sworn it was about half. At any rate, this is shocking in how skewed it is. Not clear what the takeaway is. That we need a better story for an immunity later between at risk groups? I'm still not sure, either, how this squares with the current mask story. Nursing homes bad at cleaning and isolation of sick individuals? Feels off. But not shockingly so. Regardless, hard to see how people in a mask at the grocery are somehow preventing people in long term care from getting it, at large. Edit:. I say all of that as someone that is wearing a mask nowadays.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- duckMuppet 6y ago
  I think it's close to around 44% by recent numbers. However, NY recently revised how they are counting these deaths, and they now count them in a way where if the nursing home resident is transferred to the hospital, they are generally not counted as a nursing home death. Up until very recently, they were counting that as a nursing home death the same as every other state in the union. They've been the only state to make such changes so far, but the governor did make a deal with the nursing homes to limit their liability during this situation as well so this is pretty much par for the course here.

35 points by frlnBorg 6y ago

This number is for USA. For Canada (as of 7th of May) 82% of deaths have been in long term care [1] [1] https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/05/07/82-of-canadas-covid-19-deaths-have-been-in-long-term-care.html https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/05/07/82-of-ca...

lsllc 6y ago

Here's another article (May 26th) with stats as of May 22th that claims 42% of C19 deaths are from assisted living: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2020/05/26/nursing-homes-assisted-living-facilities-0-6-of-the-u-s-population-43-of-u-s-covid-19-deaths/#9427a4874cdb https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2020/05/26/nursin... In a number of states its a much higher percentage.

cityofdelusion 6y ago

The United States needs to take a long, hard look at the current culture of dumping the elderly into a nursing home. From what I understand, there are many cultures that instead take in the elderly into their own homes or try to keep them in their own home. I remember reading a good book on the subject, _Being Mortal_ by Dr. Gawande, a few years back. It was an eye-opener to the realities of how we treat end-of-life care in the U.S.

glofish 6y ago
not sure why you think this is a US problem, in other countries these ratios are even higher it is a developed world problem simply put the way people live/work is not suited to multi-generational families - I wish it were
- ianai 6y ago
  Agreed. Blaming one another isn’t constructive. Framing it as a needed cultural change goes further.
nikolay 6y ago
I think it's much worse in Europe.
rowanG077 6y ago
I'm not sure this is feasable. Assuming a family where both adults work it doesn't really seem possiblee to handle this. In the worst case you will have 4 elderly people to handle. You also have to take into account that modern medicine extends the time these elderly people need care significantly.
battery423 6y ago
So you are saying i have to take care of my parents? Why?

awillen 6y ago

I don't think nursing homes are as terrible as they're made out to be, at least not as a general concept. The issue, in my view, is much like the issue with private prisons - you have a highly vulnerable population with little recourse against the people in charge, because those people have so much control over residents' lives. There should be much greater regulation along with frequent inspections and a mandate that residents have information in their rooms about how to report issues directly to the government. Those things obviously wouldn't help with the coronavirus issues at present, but having that type of government infrastructure involved with nursing homes would have put a lot of pieces in place to allow for a more consistent and coherent response when we started seeing Covid cases. Of course we also needed PPE and testing en masse at nursing homes early on, so maybe it wouldn't have mattered anyway.

dnautics 6y ago
"you have a highly vulnerable population with little recourse against the people in charge, because those people have so much control over residents' lives." Isn't this also true for non-private prisons?
duckMuppet 6y ago
There already is "greater regulation".. In fact in NY the nursing homes themselves pleaded with the governor to not force the return of these COVID positive individuals back to the nursing homes. The governor of NY actually scrubbed his order from the state website sending these infected patients from hospitals back to nursing homes and assisted living facilities. You can use whatever asinine ideas You like to protect your stance on big government. Not enough government wasn't the problem here, the government was essentially sending smallpox blankets into these at risk communities. If those people voted blue or were one of the protected classes, the access media would be all over this.

taeric 6y ago

This actually sounds low, from the other sources I was seeing. At one point, I could have sworn it was about half. At any rate, this is shocking in how skewed it is. Not clear what the takeaway is. That we need a better story for an immunity later between at risk groups? I'm still not sure, either, how this squares with the current mask story. Nursing homes bad at cleaning and isolation of sick individuals? Feels off. But not shockingly so. Regardless, hard to see how people in a mask at the grocery are somehow preventing people in long term care from getting it, at large. Edit:. I say all of that as someone that is wearing a mask nowadays.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
duckMuppet 6y ago
I think it's close to around 44% by recent numbers. However, NY recently revised how they are counting these deaths, and they now count them in a way where if the nursing home resident is transferred to the hospital, they are generally not counted as a nursing home death. Up until very recently, they were counting that as a nursing home death the same as every other state in the union. They've been the only state to make such changes so far, but the governor did make a deal with the nursing homes to limit their liability during this situation as well so this is pretty much par for the course here.