Daily COVID-19 Briefing April 15, 2020

United Church of Christ – Wider Church Ministries
Humanitarian Development Team
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Daily Briefing
Barbara T. Baylor, MPH – Temporary Health Liaison

Ageism and the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)? 

Could there be a correlation between ageism and the high numbers of seniors who are sick and have died due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)?

Many cultures celebrate the aging process and revere their elders. However, in Western cultures aging is stigmatized and the elderly are commonly removed from the community and relegated to hospitals and nursing homes, making aging a shameful experience.

According to the article Ageism Is Making the Pandemic Worse: The disregard for the elderly that’s woven into American culture is hurting everyone, the bias towards aging can affect the medical treatment that seniors receive.
 
In the current COVID-19 crisis, for example, hospitals may develop special clinical protocols for children and adults with COVID-19, a standard protocol throughout the country, but it doesn’t appear that such protocols exist for elders, the most vulnerable group. And, sadly, some people say that elders are dying anyway and tend to blame old age itself for their deaths – not a flawed system.

Nursing homes and long-term care facilities and COVID-19

Of particular concern are the about 1.3 million residents of the United States’ 15,600 nursing homes and long-term care facilities. More than 3,600 deaths nationwide have been linked to COVID-19 outbreaks in these facilities, an alarming rise in just the past two weeks, according to the latest count by The Associated Press.

But the true toll among the mostly frail and elderly people who live in such facilities is likely much higher, experts say. Here are possible reasons for that undercount, and for large outbreaks and deaths due to COVID-19 in congregant care facilities:

• Lack of widespread testing for the virus. Most state counts don’t include those who died without ever being tested for COVID-19.
• Testing results that take 3-6 days during which time patients can expose other patients, and caregivers can be exposed if they do not have enough Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
• Inconsistent record keeping from state to state. Information is not readily available.
• Screenings that didn’t catch people who were infected but asymptomatic.
• Infected health workers who worked at several different nursing home facilities.
• Neither the CDC nor the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are tracking the number of U.S. nursing homes with COVID-19 cases, or the number of total cases and fatalities in those facilities.
• Nursing home deaths may keep climbing because of chronic staffing shortages.

What is needed to help reduce cases and deaths from COVID-19 in congregant care facilities?

The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living has issued guidance to its members, recommending facilities report every positive COVID-19 test result to the state and notify all residents, families and staff when the first case is confirmed. The organization says it hopes federal agencies will use the data to target resources and testing. Collecting data specific to nursing homes is vital for officials to navigate the current crisis, and for mitigating future outbreak