You may have seen on the news that nursing homes are being hit really hard by COVID-19. There are a lot of false stories going around about why this is, so I figured this would be a good place to talk about how the virus spreads and why nursing homes are being hit particularly hard.
One of the major issues that is impacting nursing homes all over the world is that the people who live in nursing homes and other senior care facilities live in very close quarters. Some of the bigger homes can have several hundred residents, all in one building. If one person gets an infectious illness like this coronavirus, it is likely that multiple people will get the disease. Even with great precautionary measures in place, this can happen quite easily–especially if social distancing guidelines were not observed as strictly as they should have been.
Another reason that the coronavirus has spread quickly throughout nursing homes is that many individuals that have the disease are asymptomatic. This could be a worker within the home, a visitor, or a resident. One of the big goals of quarantine was to prevent this from occurring, but it is not possible for it to happen with perfection. The eventual outcome here is that COVID-19 finds its way into a few nursing homes or assisted living facilities and spreads from within. The unfortunate truth is that when this happens, people get sick.
Governmental oversight is another issue that has been brought up. With guidelines in place to have watchdog individuals and organizations observe what’s happening in nursing homes, rules can be enforced and the residents of these homes can be protected. Some states are really good at doing this, but not all states are. In California, the system is not perfect. However, it’s been pretty successful compared to what we have observed in other states at this point. It’s a good impetus to ensure that self-imposed guidelines are strong.
The reality is that we don’t know everything that there is to know about the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. There are a lot of unanswered questions still. But what we do know is that seniors are at a larger risk of passing away because of this sickness simply because they are older. Seniors tend to have weaker immune systems and may already suffer from health complications. Seniors are also more likely to suffer from cardiovascular or pulmonary diseases than younger individuals are. They are at risk of COVID-19 in multiple ways, making this much more difficult for the elderly than it is for younger people.
This is a fight that we are all in. Having information on your side is a good place to start. But the thing that makes this particular illness tough is that we don’t know a lot about it. Some react poorly to it, while others have no symptoms whatsoever. The best way to act is with caution. Quarantine isn’t fun, but it’s an effective way to protect the people we love.
Leave a Reply