Posts Tagged "vaccine"
March 3, 2022
Nursing Home Staffs’ Vax Rates by State
One in four of the more than 900,000 Americans who have died from COVID resided in nursing homes. Yet two years into the pandemic, hesitancy about protective vaccines persists in the facilities in many states.
In January, the Supreme Court upheld a regulation by the Biden administration that required all staff to be vaccinated in long-term care facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding, which is pretty much all of them.
But a newly released rundown of state vaccination rates may not provide much comfort to vulnerable elderly residents and their families living in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Missouri, which rank at the bottom – only about 70 percent of nursing home staff were fully vaccinated as of Jan. 30, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The national average was 84 percent.
The highest vaccination rates – 99 percent of staff – were in Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and Rhode Island.
Kaiser’s vaccination rates were calculated based on the staff working in 10,600 U.S. nursing homes who’ve received two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines or one shot of Johnson & Johnson’s traditional vaccine. The rates exclude booster shots, which are not part of the federal mandate. The nationwide booster rate for staff, which Kaiser provides separately in its report, is a low 28 percent – the Hawaii, New Mexico and California rates are double that.
A partial reason for the wide range of vaccination coverage is that states have different deadlines for complying with the federal mandate – some were in January and some are in February. But numerous states, including Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia, have low vaccination rates because they are, despite the Supreme Court ruling, seeking other legal avenues to challenge the mandate.
The size of a state’s population of people over 65 doesn’t seem to have much bearing on vaccination rates in nursing homes. …Learn More
December 23, 2020
A Splendid Holiday Gift: a Vaccine
Rather than look back on a bizarre and painful 2020, let’s look ahead to the bright side: a vaccine.
It is truly remarkable that top-notch scientists have been able to create several vaccines in record time. Producing and delivering them will be another hurdle, and questions remain about side effects and how long a vaccine will protect us. Many Americans’ reluctance to strictly adhere to public health standards will unfortunately slow our ability to put the virus completely behind us.
But scientists and public health officials seem confident the vaccines can eventually snuff out this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
Only then can we get back to our normal activities, such as traveling, eating at restaurants, and shopping – in person, rather than online. More important, increasing our consumer spending will give a shot in the arm to the economy and help put many Americans back to work after months of unemployment.
Have a joyful but subdued holiday – and enjoy the anticipation of a happier 2021!
Squared Away will return on Jan. 5 with a round-up of our readers’ favorite blogs in 2020.
Read our blog posts in our ongoing coverage of COVID-19. …Learn More
October 22, 2020
Cognitive Decline Meets COVID-19 Scams
The federal government warns that older Americans are being targeted by a battery of financial scams, including telemarketers offering to do contact tracing – for a fee – or to reserve a slot for a future vaccine. Others are soliciting donations to charities purportedly helping people in need during the economic slowdown.
COVID-19 makes this a perilous time for people struggling with cognitive decline.
Few can escape a deterioration in their cognitive capacity as they age. It’s just a matter of degree and speed. But the faster it happens, the more damage it can do, the FINRA Investor Education Foundation concluded in a new study.
The study was based on surveys of more than 1,000 older residents in Chicago retirement communities and subsidized housing – average age, 80. The same people were periodically asked questions with varying degrees of difficulty about their general financial knowledge and investments and were asked to compare and calculate percentages.
The older people who either initially had less understanding of financial concepts or experienced a faster decline in their knowledge made poorer financial decisions in exercises that simulated real-world decisions.
This included a vulnerability to scams, which was assessed by asking the older people to agree or disagree with statements like this: “If a telemarketer calls me, I usually listen to what they have to say.” (Not recommended.) And this: “If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is” (Count on it.)
To prevent scams, older people – and their caregivers – need to anticipate the financial damage that cognitive decline can cause. …Learn More
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Learn more about our blog and its writer, Kimberly Blanton, a former Boston Globe reporter.
