re: At Least 23% of COVID-19 Deaths are from Nursing Homes & LTC Facilities

All I’m going to say is I really wish the admit person wouldn’t have talked my mom out of the camera in my Grandpas room & I am thankful that he is in his right mind & knows to tell us when something is wrong

I am pushing to have him brought home with home health

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While extremely sad, we are shutting down our economy, putting millions out of jobs, putting millions of million of people future quality of life in jeopardy, for mainly people that have lived a long fruitful life already

Its an "interesting" situation

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It's more "interesting" to watch people price out the lives of others.

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He hated everyone “taking care of him” so he thought it would be best

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Then what you’re pushing him to do is robbing him of his dignity. If he’s receiving any facility-provided physical therapy, you should look into frequency of home-based therapy weekly. There’s no comparison, facility rehab is the way to go.

Then yeah, the social benefit of facility-based care may be lost with current restrictions. Ultimately a family decision. Home health won’t come dress him every morning/night or shower him a couple times a week, at most. You’re looking at private care which is 1) incredibly difficult to staff consistently without agency and 2) incredibly expensive as needs increase. Just playing devil’s advocate here.

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Do you think the staff is going to sit & fight a dementia patient to eat?
Hell no

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This is one thing that our CNAs do really well. I swear they’re like magic when it comes to that. If our people don’t eat it’s due to something other than our staff not trying. They by no means force feed but they do have a way with them.

30% in Mississippi

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Of the 15 states not reporting if the individual resided in a LTC facility include: Washington California Michigan Ohio Maryland Wisconsin Missouri So we can assume the rate is even higher...for example:

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I can't read the link because I'm not a WSJ subscriber. So, question:
Of the 15 states that are not reporting, are they merely not reporting whether the individual who died was in a nursing home or LTC? The death was still reported, yes?

10,700 deaths have been to people living in nursing homes or LTC facilities. And that number only includes 35 states, because 15 of them don't report this information.

A rough, back-of-the napkin extrapolation -- which can be refined to take into account population or the like can follow if need be -- ups that fatality number to 15,285. At time article was posted, the total # of deaths was at 42,103.

That's 36% of total deaths nationally. That's insane. Also insane are the states reporting staggering numbers. 73% of deaths in Minnesota. 55% of deaths in Massachusetts.

I think this data really sheds light on how fundamentally silly our response has been to this virus. I would be a terrible politician because I have this pesky candor problem where basically my only filter is truth. And like Bunny Colvin from The Wire, I'd be willing to pursue radical solutions that my PR person might frown upon him.

What would I have done?
- Social distancing only if healthcare infrastructure is stressed to the point where care is compromised. And even then, only for as long as it takes to show that it is no longer compromised. For most states, literally no social distancing.
- Schools would have remained open. Children are essentially impervious to this. Very few even show symptoms. Get em all good and immune, stat.
- Large gatherings would not only remain allowed, but encouraged. Hell, I might even consider subsidizing such gatherings. Stuff as many people as you can into the VZ Center, 930 club, Anthem, Merriweather Post Pavilion, The Jiffy Lube venue, etc. Encourage making out with strangers. Lots of them.
- Take aggressive measures to protect the most vulnerable. Think, without social distancing, the Feds would have 2 Trillion extra dollars to play with. Daily testing at nursing homes and LTC facilities. Free testing to homes where at least one vulnerable individual resides. Free serology testing to individuals who live with vulnerable individuals or who may want to visit them. And obviously to the staff of such facilities as well. This measure obviously wouldn't have been available right off the bat, but additional funding saved from the bailout would be specifically earmarked for this purpose and the timeline accelerated, possibly significantly.

The beautiful thing about this approach is that the aggressive measures to protect the most vulnerable wouldn't be gobbling up public resources in perpetuity. Over and done in a month.

And this is not merely hindsight reasoning. I have mentioned this several times, just without the specificity.

Also it's not hindsight, because it is still what we need to be doing right now, this very second.