COVID lockdowns: the suffering of those in nursing homes
One of the consequences of the COVID restrictions is the alarming and destructive effect it has had on the elderly in nursing homes and other facilities. Yes, they are at risk for COVID and some may even die from COVID. But they are all at great risk from isolation.
Actually, it’s not just the elderly. Everyone I speak to feels it. But those in nursing homes are already isolated and already vulnerable to depression and cognitive declines from lack of stimulation. And then there is the vile abomination of not allowing families to be there when their beloved mother or father or grandparent is dying.
It seems to me that the risk/benefit analysis is very much out of whack. But that’s true of our entire response to COVID, which seems to treat the restrictions as having no negative consequences. Au contraire.
I know that some readers of this blog have spoken about the suffering their elderly relatives have endured as a result of this. My heart goes out to you.
Here’s a beautiful essay by journalist John Kass, about his 90-year-old mother who is in a nursing home. An excerpt:
“But here, we don’t talk about missing everyone so much,” she told me last week. “Our thoughts are with our children and grandchildren. Whining and crying just won’t do. You just don’t mention it because others might feel sad.
“We just walk around the halls with our walkers, we talk about the weather, the food, but we don’t discuss what we miss outside,” she said. “I suppose prison inmates are like this.”
Much much more at the link. And you might want to have your Kleenex at the ready.
Big, hearty Christmas and Hanukkah shout out of thanks , to neo. This is the mouse that’s never roared in this crisis, the cost of “safe” isolation inflicted upon our family in institutionalised care — even at its best.
In the year to come, when accounts are written and compared, who among the old suffered least? Who did best and hurt least, balancing interests? And which states?
The Left will never say “Florida,” because Gov Ron De Santis. But I I’ll be extremely surprised is Fla doesn’t rank near the top in balancing virus safety and social needs, by this time in 2021
These are the most distressing and heartbreaking stories to come out of the “crisis.” You hit the nail on the head, though, when you mentioned that the cost-benefit equation seems to not add up. Sadly, and regrettably, the reality is that the people who are tyrannizing us neglected their responsibility by not even doing or discussing the potential costs of the lockdowns. Those costs likely will be far higher than any potential life-saving benefits.
I have a nagging feeling that the powers that be know full well what they have done, or are doing, but choose to ignore the costs, for some reason. If they don’t know, or choose to ignore them, they do not deserve to be in positions of authority, over anyone.
Yep, this has been the turning point for my mom and we could see it way back in early summer and she’s not in a nursing home but a senior living facility that has become a prison/ghost town.
Totally messed up situation.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Executive Order (signed today) on prioritized vaccine recipient populations: https://mobile.twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1341826140923711488
sdferr, Just saw Texas going the same route. Here in deep blue CT, we only follow the “science”
getting $600 now would be like losing $1400
sdferr utters a quiet cheer for Texas. Thanks for the information, physicsguy.
According to the fatality rate covid is only dangerous to the very old.
https://swprs.org/why-covid-19-is-a-strange-pandemic/
Yes, this forced isolation is surreal.
This was become real to me. My wife hasn’t been feeling well. Went to the local hospital ER. After 2 visits over four days, (no cariology department) they decided she needed to be transported to a regional hospital 100 miles away which is also one of the best cardiac hospitals, possibly in the country.
She will have open heart surgery tomorrow, and no one in the family will be allowed to visit her, either before or after the surgery until she is discharged.
One of our daughters is a hospital nurse at the local hospital, and has been working the system to see if she can be allowed to visit her mother– so far to no avail.
We are believing Christians, and have the comfort of knowing her future is secure, but her mother died 20 years ago after open heart surgery, so it is hard for her to not feel anxious about this.
You would think the hospital (which no doubt has rapid testing capabilities) could administer a test and allow visits by at least on family member.
It is tragic that tens of thousands of seniors in nursing homes have died without any family comfort.
My wife is administrator at a assisted living facility. For the most part the residents have been isolated (though this summer the governor allowed family members to take the resident out of the facility for a visit– but can’t go in the facility). Here is one of the bizarre effects of bureaucracy. The family members could take their family member off the grounds in their car for a visit. My wife decided it would be safer for them to visit outside– distancing of course, than to get in a car. Eventually the health authorities found out and reprimanded her. She could have lost her job over it.
Her facility has had no cases of covid-19 in the building, but the stress to her and the employees is real and no doubt hasn’t helped her condition. Several of her residents have died though, after being moved to a nursing home for unrelated health issues, contracting covid and passing away.
Sadly, in their response to COVID many public health officials and politicians have, in the words of Joe Biden, become “one horse ponies”.
They went with lock downs in more or less knee jerk fashion, and their only response now is more lock downs. Maybe they are loathe to admit their original mistake.
While the whole mask thing has become controversial, but the DOD was just quoted that their research revealed that transmission of COVID on airplane, where masking is mandatory, is virtually non-existent. This certainly confirms that reasonable precautions, short of lock downs, would be effective.
On another level, the huge surge in cases and hospitalizations in California, despite the lock downs, has been a bit of a mystery. The news is full of alarms about the scarcity of ICU beds and hospital staff in SoCal. My wife just heard an interesting statement by Rush that the preponderance of the hospitalized are Latinos, with a significant percentage of them being recent arrivals from Mexico. Instead of policing the border, California chose to lock down its businesses.
Brian E:
Wishing your wife and you the best for a speedy recovery.
What a difficult situation.
Thank you, Neo
Brian E:
Praying for your wife, you and the family. Prayers are also needed for our medical authorities and “elected authorities” that they may find wisdom and compassion.
Prayers for you and your wife, Brian E. My wife had open heart surgery three years ago. I cannot imagine not having been able to see her in the hospital. So devastating. How I hate this virus and all the anguish, pain, despair, and death it has wrought. At times like these, faith is a shelter from the storm.
My mom is 92 and has been in assisted living for about 2½ years now. The facility has done a good job of keeping COVID out, a remarkable achievement that has come from pure determination, I think. They have only just recently started to relax visitation rules. When it was still warm out, my mom could receive two visitors out on the veranda where we could chat and share a meal. Now it’s been expanded to include the main lobby where there’s a bistro with tables and plexiglass shields – one can book a table and visit. Any resident who checks out of the facility for an outing though, will then have to quarantine in their apartment for two weeks.
It’s been hard on everyone, especially my mom, but she’s tough, orphaned in the Great Depression. I’ll tell you one thing we did that has made a huge difference. We got a Facebook Portal, one of the big ones. We got two so that we could have one, too. The screen rotates 90° and can be either Portrait or Landscape orientation, but it’s a terrific picture quality either way. The camera tracks automatically; The image is high-definition; The sound fidelity is very good; The connection is wireless; It has Alexa.
So my mom can say, “Portal, call Joe Blow” and it will find his contacts on her Facebook, and call him up on Messenger. Freakin’ thing is brilliant and the person you are talking to appears very close to life size if they’re sitting close. It has really changed my mom’s demeanor to be able to see someone face-to-face and converse. And she doesn’t have to hold it like an iPad or smartphone. And it tracks her as she moves around. Offline, it shows your Facebook photos or becomes a clock showing the time.
I don’t care for social media or the intrusiveness of Alexa in my household, but for my mom, this has been a God-send. If you have elderly people suffering through this lockdown, consider it. We find that we use ours all the time. And plus it’s easy to conference in others, so we’ll end up having family calls with 3 or more from all over.
Maybe it’s just my stubbornness but I try to be very precise with my language when talking about all this. I don’t agree when people say ‘the damage this virus has done’ or some business is ‘closed because of the pandemic’. No, no, no. Businesses are closed because of government ordered lockdowns.
This cannot be allowed to be the way we react going forward.
Griffin:
It’s a good thing to be a king, particularly in Washington.
King Jay and his minions (WA State Dept. of Health) are the culprits, although not responsible (irresponsible) and certainly not accountable (unaccountable) for what they have done.
Brian, all the best to your wife and to a speedy recovery. My sympathy to your wife and you. At least you will be able to talk to her and FaceTime or the equivalent. Being able to see and talk to her, even remotely, will be very therapeutic for both of you.
I’ve been in a similar situation since late March. I had to move my wife into a memory unit since she has a form of dementia known as Lewy Body disease. I’ve barely been able to see her in person for the last nine months because of all the Covid lockdowns. That makes separation very hard since she is unable to carry on a conversation of any kind, whether on the phone or via FaceTime. Just sitting with her and holding hands is not allowed due to distancing requirements. I’m hoping that the vaccine will allow for real visitation again.
Paul in Boston:
I am so sorry to hear that. I hope you can at least visit soon.
Perhaps none but certainly many of the public officials ordering lockdowns have been caught blatantly violating their own dictats. Proof positive that they do not believe in the underlying rationale they advance.
So where’s the benefit for them? What long term gain from destroying America’s small businesses? What do they gain by instilling abject fear in the citizenry? What do they gain by getting the public used to severe restriction’s in liberty?
Answer that question and you have their motivation.
Personally, I think it a bit too facile to imagine that it’s only about getting rid of Trump. Think Great Reset.
“Democrat Senator says virus is “a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision” days before voting down the stimulus package.”
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/democrat-senator-opportunity-to-restructure-things-to-fit-our-vision/
“Rep. James Clyburn, Who Touted Coronavirus As ‘Tremendous’ Political Opportunity, to Take Helm of Pandemic Oversight Committee”
https://freebeacon.com/coronavirus/clyburn-coronavirus-oversight/
https://s2.freebeacon.com/up/2020/04/GettyImages-1202765540-736×514.jpg
Pelosi is not sharing her favorite brands of ice cream with Clyburn.
My 93 year old mother in law is in assisted living. Only my wife is allowed to go in now. If we take her out for Christmas she has to be in her room for 10 days. She has deteriorated so much this year because the MiL is a very social person. She is slowly slipping away into the shadow of memories. If she did get COVID she would pass away. So what to do is a dilemma so many of us face.
I wish all of you to have a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy the small things because the big things are being denied to us. Peace to all of you and your household.
My wife and I do Meals on Wheels. Used to be, our independent living clients were served personally. I’d get my cooler and go up and down the halls to the various rooms and pass the stuff out. I was scheduled once per week but would occasionally substitute. So, five or six times a month, I’d see the folks. Chat with them, maybe encounter a care giver or relation. Jab some of the old vets like we were still nineteen or something.
Since March, I haven’t seen a single one of them. I have to bag up the meals–old Walmart bags–put the room numbers on the bags and leave them in the vestibule for the staff–bless them–to distribute.
Now, a two-minute chat with Aubrey isn’t going to lift your whole day, but it’s better than nothing, I like to think. And it’s another pair of eyes.
Much as I hate to do it, I do have some sympathy for the elected officials. Not much but….
Suppose a school superintendent has, due to local circumstances, sole discretion to open schools like in the old days.
If he does, possibly little Johnny is going to get C19 and die. Or some other kind of flu kids get and it’s coded C19 because the Establishment needs the numbers. Super’s known as a child murderer all over the state.
Or he doesn’t open and little Johnny’s parents can’t quite make their schedule work one day and there’s an hour little Johnny is by himself and something terrible happens…and he dies. Nobody knows, nobody cares and blame to the super is zero. And the super knows it.
This is a metaphor.
It’s come to this:
https://twitter.com/kksheld/status/1341812130383863812/photo/1
I wish I could say it’s surprising.
American Thinker had a piece, “AMA Lied, How Many People Died?” It’s about how HCQ was terrible, terrible stuff until after the election. Now it’s recommended. By medical authorities. AMA, NEJM, Lancet. All did one eighties.
I would like to know how many covid deaths are in hospice and how many are in a nursing homes with a DNR instruction for them? My mother had dementia, but expressed that she was miserable. Her last two months were horrible – before covid came along.
Thanks to all for your best wishes and prayers for my wife. It is 2pm PST and she is out of surgery and headed to ICU. The doctor called and all went well. Quadruple bypass.
The hospital did have a nurse call twice during the surgery to let us know of the progress, so they’re doing what they can to alleviate the uncertainty.
But it highlights how devastating this has been to patients and residents in facilities that have been isolated from family.
As assisted living administrator she has been under very high stress all year. She said before the surgery that she is going to ask her company to move her out of that position– to something part time. She could just retire, but she likes working. I think she’s coming to realize how much the strain has been this year.
We’ll see. She has loved her job.
Biran E:
Very glad to hear your wife’s surgery went well. All good wishes for a quick and uneventful recovery.
Richard Aubrey–
Our school district opened school to elementary and middle school grades to in-person learning at the beginning of the school year, against the advice of the local health district– one of a few districts to open to in person learning in the state.
The state guidelines was a 14 day new case average of 25/100,000 in the county to open to all grades and 75/100,000 to even consider any in person learning.
At the time our county was over 300/100,000 (the school district area itself was over 200/100,000, so it was very contentious).
There was guidance from Harvard that grade schools could open at 350/100,000 and high school at 125/100,000– but our state didn’t recognize that guidance.
I write all this to say that the experience in Europe showed that grade school ages did not cause community spread and weren’t as likely to contract or spread the virus as older children. The infectivity rate increases as the student ages until high school, where the rate is similar to adults. The fatality rate is also extremely low.
The risk is actually the teachers bringing the virus into the school, which is what happened.
Now fast forward a couple of months. The eastern half of the state has seen a surge of new cases– our 14 day new case rate ballooned to over 1300/100,000. They finally had to move the middle schools to remote learning because so many of the teachers had contracted the virus.
Without getting into too much detail, the in-person elementary schools only had about 10 students per class and each time a case was diagnosed in a class, that class had to quarantine at home for 14 days (same as all grades).
The school district has kept very transparent records of what has gone on, and you can see the infectivity rate follows the exact trend line you would expect- with the percentage of grade school kids at a level, which increased and was double by the time the kids were high school age.
This is a very conservative community, and most of the teachers and parents have been supportive of what the school district is doing, but there is a small but very vocal segment that has been very critical– at the beginning they would wonder how many children and teachers would have to die before the school district came to their senses.
Now here’s where it gets tragic. There was a large wedding with over 300 attendees on November 7 in a town 45 miles from my town. No social distancing, dancing, etc. It was held in the airplane hanger at the private field owned by the father of the bride (big farming operation). The health district has traced attendees of the wedding to several teachers and health care workers in multiple nursing homes in area. This has led to moving more classes to remote learning. The devastation has been in the nursing homes in. Nearly half of the employees have contracted the virus and over 35 residents have died (none in my wife’s facility).
On November 5, our county of 100,000 had 25 deaths from covid. Today it is 73.
Brian E. The nursing home deaths should be considered as if, almost, on a separate plane. Due to the restrictions in place, bad luck has to work hard–or be ordered by such as Cuomo–to invade the places. The same is true for independent living facilities.
But once the Covid is in there, what is known as “dry tinder”, the vulnerable, is guaranteed tragedy.
Given endless reports of bogus cause-of-death certs, I’d be suspicious of the total numbers. Still, if there are excess deaths, then something is happening.
I have a daughter in law who teaches high school and says she and her colleagues are being driven to distraction trying to keep up with the changing requirements, including differing class prep and child care issues, as the authorities try to keep from–looking bad.
Kids, especially the younger, seem resistant to the disease and not to spread it and not be seriously ill–exceptions noted–and so a teacher who “brings the virus” into the school is doing nothing more than the kids run into anywhere else they go.
Our daughter teaches at a Christian school which has chosen not to shut down but does masks and distancing. They’ve had one case a couple of months ago which is long enough to see if there would be a spread. No spread.
My original point, however, is that Authority wants to be seen to be doing something and none of the negatives of distance learning, quarantines, isolation, lack of supervision can be laid at the feet of Authority, no matter how obvious they are.
It strikes me that a nursing home worker should have known not to go to a wedding. And when tested/questioned (have you been exposed to….have you been possibly exposed to…have you been in a public gathering) more rigorously than the rest of us trying to get into a store or something, this person should have twigged to the issue and stayed home.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I do Meals on Wheels and must, now, bag the meals and leave them in the vestibules for the staff of independent living facilities to distribute rather than personally delivering them inside the facilities. Except for one place where I’m waved in. Other places, the vestibules have more or fewer, sometimes a pile, of things to be delivered by staff. The place where I’m waved in never does which leads me to believe any other delivery person is allowed the same freedom.
Far as I can tell, with the numbers where I go being under a couple of hundred and so subject to probability issues, there’s no difference in death rates.
One of the facilities where I deliver–mostly I deliver to homes and apartments which are single households–has the staff always masked. The other end has staff unmasked except when they come to the door to take the meals, when they are donning the masks as they approach the door. There are no good ways to wear a mask except under the strictest medical protocols which nobody outside of a medical facility does so this difference probably doesn’t make a difference.
Point is, a lot of this reaction is, at best, a good faith effort to protect people. But, imo, the more important motivation is for Authority to be seen to be doing something while the inevitable continues. It’s better than to not be seen to be doing something while the inevitable continues.
The wuhanflu is out there, and you’re going to be exposed to it, or not, whether you choose to breathe through a pathogen-collecting rag or not, whether you stay home as much as possible. We were told we needed two weeks to flatten the curve and then three things happened.
Authority saw its vulnerability if not seen as doing something.
People wanted to do “something” because it’s better than thinking the whole thing is random and there’s no way to control what happens to you.
And those who gloried in being told to do stupid stuff–a kind of masochism–met their saviors in the graduates of HOA academies who found politics is even more fun.
I was maybe thirteen during the Asian flu issue. On a population proportion, that would have killed about 225k Americans today. And there were no, that I recall, issues with bogus cause-of-death certs. The nation, the world, did not turn itself inside out in what would have been an approximation of what’s happening today.