Four in Ten of All U.S. #COVID19 Deaths Were in Elder Care Facilities #Coronavirus

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I’ve reported here before that shockingly high rates of COVID-19 deaths in elder care facilities in a few individual states. Avik Roy looked at data from multiple states:

Roy writes in Forbes:

According to an analysis that Gregg Girvan and I conducted for the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, as of May 22, in the 43 states that currently report such figures, an astounding 42% of all COVID-19 deaths have taken place in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

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And 42% could be an undercount. States like New York exclude from their nursing home death tallies those who die in a hospital, even if they were originally infected in a long-term care facility. Outside of New York, more than half of all deaths from COVID-19 are of residents in long-term care facilities.

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Nearly one-tenth of all New Jersey long-term care residents have died from COVID-19

As I recall, the first COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. was in a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington.

Do you ever wonder how this pandemic could have been less severe if our rulers had concentrated their public health efforts on elder care facilities and older vulnerable adults? I do.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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