July 31, 2025 The Best Source of News, Culture, Lifestyle for Culver City, Mar Vista, Del Rey, Palms and West Los Angeles

More Visitors Needed to Stem COVID in Nursing Homes

By Tom Elias, Westside Today Columnist

More than six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, no one has done much to stop the near-constant toll the coronavirus has taken among those most vulnerable to it: people living in nursing homes.

It’s well known by now that almost three-fourths of all fatalities from this virus come in the 65-and-up age group, and virtually everyone involved in trying to bring the plague to heel calls continuously for protecting those most prone to infection.

That includes California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the newest addition to President Trump’s coronavirus task force, Scott Atlas – a scholar at Stanford University’s conservative Hoover Institution think tank, a physician not trained as an epidemics expert. But none of these folks faces up to the obvious: To stem Covid-caused deaths, they will have to do something about the toll in nursing homes.

For of the many fatalities among senior citizens, about two-thirds – or almost half the total deaths – have been residents of the nation’s almost 15,000 nursing homes, just under 2,000 of them in California. That’s because this virus is particularly pernicious when attacking those who are already compromised – and who lives in nursing homes if not previously compromised in some way?

It’s been clear from the pandemic’s beginning last spring that nursing homes – often not prepared for external disasters like wildfires and earthquakes – also were not and still are not generally equipped to stem the virus.

This is because of conditions inside the homes, like frequently leaving disabled patients abed for days at a time, not testing staffers very often for viral exposure and not always establishing social distance within the homes. It’s also because both state and federal governments have failed consistently in responding to appeals from nursing home groups for more supplies of quality personal protection equipment for their workers.

But the most vital keys to stemming the viral tide among those most vulnerable are two items, one very specific to nursing homes, one very general.

First, nursing homes must be allowed, even compelled, to allow more visitors. At the start of the pandemic, nursing homes nationwide stopped allowing any visitors. Not even state inspectors could get in for fear they might bring in contagion. But staff continued to come and go and still does, often working at more than one job because wages in the homes can be very low.

Without visitors, no one can know what really goes on in the homes. Friends and relatives who make contact with residents through ground-floor windows and Facetime or Zoom conversations can barely get an inkling. Nursing home managements love complying with no-visitor rules, as that means no one can monitor their practices.

This makes allowing visitors the most direct way to improve things in the homes. There have been moves in that direction. In California, visitors can enter now, to see one per resident at a time, if a home has had no COVID-19 cases for several weeks and if they dress up in mask, gown and gloves to make sure of sanitation on all sides. But homes with no virus cases for weeks at a time are scarce, so this rule still needs more easing. For visitors have long been the prime control on nursing home practices. They see when patients are dehydrated, not bathed regularly, suffer from bedsores or are not properly distanced from each other.

The second need to cut the death toll in long-term care homes is much more general: a great reduction in cases within the outside community. For as isolated as the residents have become, often causing them enormous mental and emotional distress, staffers in the homes are just the opposite. Besides often working multiple jobs, they frequently live in crowded quarters among people of all ages and health practices and they bring those exposures into the homes daily. When community-wide caseloads rise, that means viral incidence and deaths in nursing homes do, too.

Nursing homes must have three things if the pace of deaths there is to subside: More equipment, better conditions outside the homes and, most important, more visitors so that relatives and others can know what’s going on inside and act on it where needed.

Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, “The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It” is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net

Related Posts

Lulu Hosts Summer Tardeada With Guest Chef From Oakland’s Bombera

July 30, 2025

July 30, 2025

Chef Dominica Rice-Cisneros Joins Alice Waters for a Courtyard Celebration Lulu, the acclaimed restaurant located at the Hammer Museum, will...

Film Review: Together

July 30, 2025

July 30, 2025

By Dolores Quintana Dave Franco and Alison Brie, a married couple in real life, star in Michael Shanks’ gruesomely passionate...

Heidi Klum’s Tropical Erewhon Smoothie Drops Just in Time for Summer

July 30, 2025

July 30, 2025

Supermodel’s Limited-Edition Drink Blends Kiwi, Coconut, and Matcha Erewhon has debuted its newest celebrity smoothie collaboration, this time with supermodel...

‘Challahboration’ Hits Culver City with Sausage-Stuffed Treats and French Cruller Flair

July 30, 2025

July 30, 2025

Nyletta, Nyletta and Challah Dad Serve Summer Sizzle in Culver City A limited-run culinary collaboration is coming to Hi-Lo Liquor...

UCLA Agrees to $6.1 Million Settlement Over Alleged Discrimination During Campus Protests

July 30, 2025

July 30, 2025

Faculty Group Argued Protest Wasn’t Antisemitic; Judge Approval Still Pending UCLA will pay more than $6 million to settle a...

Tsunami Advisory Issued for Los Angeles Coast After 8.7 Quake Near Russia

July 29, 2025

July 29, 2025

Strong Currents, Surges Expected; Residents Urged to Avoid Beaches and Harbors Update from NWS Los Angeles at 6:50 a.m. “Latest...

Brazen Wheel Thieves Hit Beverly Grove, Hollywood Neighborhoods

July 29, 2025

July 29, 2025

Early-Morning Thefts Leave Cars on Blocks; Residents Coordinate  Los Angeles police are investigating a growing number of wheel thefts reported...

Westchester Del Rey Stuns Tucson With 11-Run Inning to Reach World Series

July 29, 2025

July 29, 2025

 Westside Team Heads to Greenville, North Carolina to Compete for Glory  Westchester Del Rey Little League is headed to the...

Felony Charges Dropped for Man in UCLA Encampment Attack After Diversion Deal

July 28, 2025

July 28, 2025

Malachi Marlan-Librett Must Complete Therapy, Anti-bias Training in Hate Crime Case The only person charged with a felony in connection...

Fiesta La Ballona Returns to Culver City With Rides, Food, and Family Fun

July 28, 2025

July 28, 2025

Discounted Unlimited Ride Wristbands Now Available Online Fiesta La Ballona is set to return to Veterans Memorial Park on August...

Culver City Police Catch Suspect With Stolen Catalytic Converters During Traffic Stop

July 28, 2025

July 28, 2025

Suspect Already on Supervision for Grand Theft Auto, Found with Incriminating Objects Early Friday morning, Culver City police arrested a...

Homecare Company Celebrates 14 years of Compassion While Planting New Roots After January Fire

July 28, 2025

July 28, 2025

Luxe Homecare, a leading provider of compassionate and reliable in-home care services for seniors has recently announced the opening of...

Wallis Annenberg, Visionary Philanthropist and Civic Leader, Dies at 86

July 28, 2025

July 28, 2025

Philanthropist Expanded Foundation’s Reach From Arts to Conservation Wallis Annenberg, a prominent philanthropist and longtime leader of the Annenberg Foundation,...

Second Grenade Still Missing After Blast That Killed Three LA Sheriff’s Detectives

July 28, 2025

July 28, 2025

Only One Grenade Exploded; The Second Device Has Vanished Authorities said Friday that one of two grenades recovered last week...

More Than $50 Billion in Damage: What January’s Wildfire Cost the City of Los Angeles

July 27, 2025

July 27, 2025

Nearly 11,000 Properties, Many in Pacific Palisades, Affected; True Losses Likely Higher Nearly $52 billion in residential real estate across...