22% of MD’s cases and 50% of the deaths are in nursing homes

[Anonymous]

I bet the numbers are grossly understated. It’s the perfect storm:

1. Extremely vulnerable population;
2. Far less medical expertise than hospitals;
3. Less sophisticated infectious disease practices;
4. Less oversight/scrutiny;
5. Multiple external disease vectors; and
6. A profit motive not to disclose sickness/fatalities.

I would not be surprised for some truly horrific stories to emerge from nursing homes.

[Anonymous]

Because it’s such a high turnover and hard job and they need to meet staffing 24/7 even when people are sick or don’t show many facilities rely on agencies to fill openings or gaps and those agency workers go to multiple places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because it’s such a high turnover and hard job and they need to meet staffing 24/7 even when people are sick or don’t show many facilities rely on agencies to fill openings or gaps and those agency workers go to multiple places.

My father lived in a skilled nursing unit at a local, “fancy” nursing home for nearly 4 years.

Very common to hire a “private duty” aide (a CNA) to simply “sit with” (a common term) a skilled nursing care resident. Ugly truth is that the few nurses on staff are all business and overworked and underpaid. Yes, a nurse is available but otherwise, the skilled nursing resident just sits or lies down alone, in maybe a shared room for hours. Call buttons are ignored.

Learned quickly that to guard against negligence, you have to supplement care. These are unlicensed,
independent caregivers and they typically approach family members, hoping to be hired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love this... 50% are old people... guess who the other 50% are... NOT OLD PEOPLE. FFS!

Can you please look at data before you shout.

As of 4/28 of the 929 MD confirmed deaths, less than 100 were under the age of 60. 139 were between 60 and 69. The rest were over 70 so approx 74% are over 70. Source MD site.

I did... 55% of the people dying are <80. Most people don't even retire until 65-70... so that is 10-15 years of retirement. What you are saying is that you think 70 is so old they should be dying. Sorry but in my family 70-80 is not old, they are living full independent lives. Golfing, traveling, loving their grandchildren.

30% of the deaths are people that are still working <70.

They may be of working age but it is doubtful that they are all well enough to work. There are 40 year old and 50 year old people in nursing homes unfortunately. Also, it has been well documented that heart attacks, strokes and other very serious issues have been counted as Covid-19 deaths....which sort of skews the numbers in a way that is, quite frankly, misleading to the public.

Have I known otherwise healthy, active, vibrant people to suddenly drop dead of a heart attack? Yes. Do people under 60 sometimes get terrible, terminal illnesses? Yes. But that happened before Covid-19.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sweden is doing much less than us. 1/3 of their deaths are in nursing homes. Take those out and this pandemic’s impact on the general population over there looks even less lethal.

The Swedish experience is clearly making a lot of people uncomfortable as it doesn't fit the narrative. For the same reason Florida does too. It's rather fascinating how people refuse to see these places as good news.

The simple reality is that the virus exists. We can't wish it away. We have always known from the early days from the Chinese data (corrupt as it may have been) and especially the Italian data, the virus is not lethal to the vast majority but is more lethal to elderly people with health problems (Italian data early on showed average age of 80 and most with at least two comorbidities, which is replicated in the data from Massachusetts and even New York). The blunt reality is for all the media hype over the rare younger victim, the virus is mostly killing people who are already dying. The average tenure in nursing homes is 2 to 2 1/2 years before death. Any death before your time is sad and tragic. But somehow we have adopted this maniac shutdown crippling everyone. Which is horrendous too. People will be suffering from this shutdown long after tyr virus has passed through our society. And I'm not sure if we can ethically claim it was right to cripple the economic wellbeing and future for tens of millions to possibly, just possibly, save a few more lives for another year before they eventually succumbed to their health problems.

Agree 100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet the numbers are grossly understated. It’s the perfect storm:

1. Extremely vulnerable population;
2. Far less medical expertise than hospitals;
3. Less sophisticated infectious disease practices;
4. Less oversight/scrutiny;
5. Multiple external disease vectors; and
6. A profit motive not to disclose sickness/fatalities.

I would not be surprised for some truly horrific stories to emerge from nursing homes.

Public health officials are not stupid. They have pretty good data as every death in the state is recorded. Undercounting deaths might have been a factor in February, but not the past month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it’s such a high turnover and hard job and they need to meet staffing 24/7 even when people are sick or don’t show many facilities rely on agencies to fill openings or gaps and those agency workers go to multiple places.

My father lived in a skilled nursing unit at a local, “fancy” nursing home for nearly 4 years.

Very common to hire a “private duty” aide (a CNA) to simply “sit with” (a common term) a skilled nursing care resident. Ugly truth is that the few nurses on staff are all business and overworked and underpaid. Yes, a nurse is available but otherwise, the skilled nursing resident just sits or lies down alone, in maybe a shared room for hours. Call buttons are ignored.

Learned quickly that to guard against negligence, you have to supplement care. These are unlicensed,
independent caregivers and they typically approach family members, hoping to be hired.

Its only common for rich parents like yours. Most are on medicaid in some nursing homes and no one has a private duty nurse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve read several times now that staff members often work at multiple facilities to make ends meet- is thus still happening? Seems like you need to put a stop to that pronto.

I have heard that it is still true.

It’s still true and you can’t put a stop to it...Many staff will Work multiple facilities or work home health or private aide jobs. For some specialized staff like physical therapists, they need to work multiple facilities a week. And doctors will have other patients at their office or hospital too.

This is insane- why can’t it be stopped? Divert some stimulus money to pay staff better and figure this eff-ing out. If we were truly concerned about protecting the most vulnerable people this would have been enacted weeks ago. What good is it to have schools and businesses closed when all of these people are circulating around to multiple centers? That’s not social distancing in the least. WTF.

Because even if they get stimulus money, they don't have to sue it to pay staff. Many are getting medicaid funds and do heavily billing to medicaid and medicare for every other little thing. Many do have the money to pay staff and choose not to. I think part of the issue is the checks and balances, like the ombudsman probably are not going in right now and they are getting away with more than they normally would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need higher wages for those who work with the elderly, but also more use of technology and robots.

Because that is what seniors need: Even less contact with humans.

It is with bitter irony that I post this:

Thank you for posting this. It is beautiful and tore at my soul. I am most disappointed in how so many in our country are happy to treat these people as disposable. They did their part for our country and we should do ours for them. Remember a day will come when you are old too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because it’s such a high turnover and hard job and they need to meet staffing 24/7 even when people are sick or don’t show many facilities rely on agencies to fill openings or gaps and those agency workers go to multiple places.

My father lived in a skilled nursing unit at a local, “fancy” nursing home for nearly 4 years.

Very common to hire a “private duty” aide (a CNA) to simply “sit with” (a common term) a skilled nursing care resident. Ugly truth is that the few nurses on staff are all business and overworked and underpaid. Yes, a nurse is available but otherwise, the skilled nursing resident just sits or lies down alone, in maybe a shared room for hours. Call buttons are ignored.

Learned quickly that to guard against negligence, you have to supplement care. These are unlicensed,
independent caregivers and they typically approach family members, hoping to be hired.

Its only common for rich parents like yours. Most are on medicaid in some nursing homes and no one has a private duty nurse.

My point was to illustrate that there are lots of unregulated, unmonitored freelancers in and out of nursing homes. This is a potentially dangerous situation, especially since these caregivers are paid under the table and still attempt to come in even under a lockdown situation. They become part of the family.
I happen to know that some of these caregivers slip in before or after hours to help residents bathe or grab their laundry. Often the private duty aides are hired when you first move to independent living, then they stay with you through until the end.

[Anonymous]

The website is now breaking out residents versus workers.

They are as follows:

Cases —
1550 — staff
3272 — residents

Deaths —
8 — staff
508 — residents

When taken together, they comprise 23% of MD’s cases and 52% of our deaths. Nursing home residents alone comprise 15% of the cases and 51% of the deaths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sweden is doing much less than us. 1/3 of their deaths are in nursing homes. Take those out and this pandemic’s impact on the general population over there looks even less lethal.

The Swedish experience is clearly making a lot of people uncomfortable as it doesn't fit the narrative. For the same reason Florida does too. It's rather fascinating how people refuse to see these places as good news.

The simple reality is that the virus exists. We can't wish it away. We have always known from the early days from the Chinese data (corrupt as it may have been) and especially the Italian data, the virus is not lethal to the vast majority but is more lethal to elderly people with health problems (Italian data early on showed average age of 80 and most with at least two comorbidities, which is replicated in the data from Massachusetts and even New York). The blunt reality is for all the media hype over the rare younger victim, the virus is mostly killing people who are already dying. The average tenure in nursing homes is 2 to 2 1/2 years before death. Any death before your time is sad and tragic. But somehow we have adopted this maniac shutdown crippling everyone. Which is horrendous too. People will be suffering from this shutdown long after tyr virus has passed through our society. And I'm not sure if we can ethically claim it was right to cripple the economic wellbeing and future for tens of millions to possibly, just possibly, save a few more lives for another year before they eventually succumbed to their health problems.

Agree 100%

And even with all of these social distancing measures those lives weren't even saved so...there is that, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We need higher wages for those who work with the elderly, but also more use of technology and robots.

Because that is what seniors need: Even less contact with humans.

It is with bitter irony that I post this:

Thank you for posting this. It is beautiful and tore at my soul. I am most disappointed in how so many in our country are happy to treat these people as disposable. They did their part for our country and we should do ours for them. Remember a day will come when you are old too.

I think that these people should be able to enjoy dining with their friends and that they should be able to enjoy group activities again. I also think that they should be able to visit with their families. Because life is short and no one should die all alone in a hospital, have their body stored in a freezer truck, knowing that their family members won't even be able to give them a proper funeral.

The sick should be quarantined. The well should be able to live. That is my opinion based on the facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sweden is doing much less than us. 1/3 of their deaths are in nursing homes. Take those out and this pandemic’s impact on the general population over there looks even less lethal.

The Swedish experience is clearly making a lot of people uncomfortable as it doesn't fit the narrative. For the same reason Florida does too. It's rather fascinating how people refuse to see these places as good news.

The simple reality is that the virus exists. We can't wish it away. We have always known from the early days from the Chinese data (corrupt as it may have been) and especially the Italian data, the virus is not lethal to the vast majority but is more lethal to elderly people with health problems (Italian data early on showed average age of 80 and most with at least two comorbidities, which is replicated in the data from Massachusetts and even New York). The blunt reality is for all the media hype over the rare younger victim, the virus is mostly killing people who are already dying. The average tenure in nursing homes is 2 to 2 1/2 years before death. Any death before your time is sad and tragic. But somehow we have adopted this maniac shutdown crippling everyone. Which is horrendous too. People will be suffering from this shutdown long after tyr virus has passed through our society. And I'm not sure if we can ethically claim it was right to cripple the economic wellbeing and future for tens of millions to possibly, just possibly, save a few more lives for another year before they eventually succumbed to their health problems.

Agree 100%

^^^ These previous posts brought to you by someone who raged against Obamacare's 'death panels' ^^^

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sweden is doing much less than us. 1/3 of their deaths are in nursing homes. Take those out and this pandemic’s impact on the general population over there looks even less lethal.

The Swedish experience is clearly making a lot of people uncomfortable as it doesn't fit the narrative. For the same reason Florida does too. It's rather fascinating how people refuse to see these places as good news.

The simple reality is that the virus exists. We can't wish it away. We have always known from the early days from the Chinese data (corrupt as it may have been) and especially the Italian data, the virus is not lethal to the vast majority but is more lethal to elderly people with health problems (Italian data early on showed average age of 80 and most with at least two comorbidities, which is replicated in the data from Massachusetts and even New York). The blunt reality is for all the media hype over the rare younger victim, the virus is mostly killing people who are already dying. The average tenure in nursing homes is 2 to 2 1/2 years before death. Any death before your time is sad and tragic. But somehow we have adopted this maniac shutdown crippling everyone. Which is horrendous too. People will be suffering from this shutdown long after tyr virus has passed through our society. And I'm not sure if we can ethically claim it was right to cripple the economic wellbeing and future for tens of millions to possibly, just possibly, save a few more lives for another year before they eventually succumbed to their health problems.

Agree 100%

^^^ These previous posts brought to you by someone who raged against Obamacare's 'death panels' ^^^

Credit where credit is due - the sock puppet trolls, though vastly outnumbered, make up for their lack of numerical support with lots (and lots) of posts.