Hear hear. There was a time when we couldn’t visit our loved ones in nursing homes due to pandemic restrictions, but that time has passed. Unless…is OP also not vaccinated? Maybe the nursing home was also requiring visitors to be vaccinated? Perhaps no one visited the old man because his loved ones also chose to take a stand against science instead of doing what was necessary to spend time with him?
I have a family member whose facility is quarantined yet again. A staff member has COVID and infected two residents. Whether that’s a breakthrough case for the staffer or they lied about being vaccinated, I don’t know. What I do know is how rapidly my family member declines without social engagement.
Good point. A vaccine mandate likely would’ve prevented your family member from suffering the same fate as the OP’s family member.
I am so sorry. I hope the quarantine is lifted shortly, visitors are so important.
I wasn’t going to say that, but yeah. All of the nursing homes I’ve visited have included residents who never get visitors. About once a month, I’d bring something small in for everyone and the staff would tell me how much getting a couple of cookies and a smile from a stranger meant to someone who never got visitors. Very sad.
Thanks. I am not a physician, but this is what I wanted to say, too. I don’t want the people who are caring for me to make me ill. I suspect the same nurses who won’t get vaccinated aren’t careful about washing their hands, too. Because if they believed in the germ theory of disease, they would get vaccinated.
And I’m pleased to see that the hospital I go to has a vaccine mandate for staff, now.
@Turble, I’m really sorry you lost your dad. But “caring for patients” includes being as careful as possible to avoid killing them. And today, that means getting vaccinated for all the common communicable diseases that you can get vaccinated against, including covid.
Here in Syracuse, we have almost 600 employees at our three largest nursing homes who may be without jobs come Tuesday, if they don’t get their vaccines by Monday’s deadline.
Not sure of the numbers far as nurses and stuff at our local hospitals who still have to meet the deadline as well.
No they are not. They are leaving the profession because there is a literal death-cult that is spreading insanely dangerous misinformation about COVID and about the various vaccines, and they have fallen prey to the death cult’s lure.
This is a victory for the death cult. The death cult values loyalty to their leader above the lives of their fellow Americans. Having health workers quit their job as a sign of that loyalty is a sacrifice of human lives that strengthens the cult.
They could not be more vicious if they were carving hearts out of chests atop a pyramid.
CDC says 55% of Americans are fully vaccinated. Let’s just make nearly half the US population instantly unemployable.
It’s not just nurses who are already burning out you want to fire. All those rural redneck farmers and truck drivers – who needs them. The entire global transport industry is a mess. No need to think beyond that when there is a political agenda to rally around.
PS: Dad had a visit from a family member AND a (long) phone call every day when not locked down in what he called “The Prison”.
PPS: Dad was a lifelong straight party-line follow-the-leader Democrat. I am not, nor am I a Republican; purely apolitical independent. I have known for a very long time that Trump is a stupid, lying, scheming con man, so you can all put your “This guy is a Trumper” thoughts to rest.
Or better yet, let’s make nearly half the US population newly vaccinated over the next month.
Not everyone who is pro-Covid is pro-Trump. Got it.
No one is making them unemployable other than themselves. Further, vaccine mandates overwhelmingly seem to work. Every large employer that has implemented one has seen the vast majority of their employees get vaccinated. This has also been observed in the military and the Federal civilian workforce.
Also, 55% is total population, the total population is not working age nor even vaccine eligible–the vaccines are not yet approved for children under age 12. 55% also isn’t a good number–the better number is 64% of the total population has received one dose. That’s a better number because someone with one dose is probably either planning to get a second, or at least open to it if they are hesitant. So we have 64% of the population that have gotten some level of vaccination, however 0% of the under 12 population does. The population of U.S. residents over age 12 is 280m, around 212m of them have received both or one injection. That’s 76%. So it’s actually only around 24% of the age 12+ population are would be “unemployable”, and some of them are not in the workforce–they are people who are still too young to work (i.e. people under 16, since while not unheard of it is fairly unusual these days for people under age 16 to be in the work force), retired, college students not in the workforce, just otherwise non-participants (disability etc etc.)
No. “Let’s” stop pussyfooting around the death cult and pretending like it’s a personal liberty choice whether you spread a deadly disease. People who aren’t vaccinated can get vaccinated. People whom they kill can’t get healthy.
They’ve made 1 in 500 Americans permanently unemployable. “Let’s” stop them from increasing that number.
But I don’t understand why you would defend a nurse who refused to try and effectively prevent herself from infecting your father. Who felt that her freedom not to vaccinate was more important than safeguarding your father’s health. I’d be infuriated with her if I were you, not defending her. Her single job is to protect the patients. If her freedom to ignore the science of disease transmission is more important, well, that’s on her.
I believe that sooner or later, everyone who isn’t vaccinated (and a few who are) will get COVID. This plague isn’t going to just fizzle out; we’re not going to reach herd immunity through vaccinating because we’re too stupid. If you don’t get vaccinated, you’re going to get COVID, and you’re probably going to give it to others. If this nurse had stayed on, she would have eventually killed someone at that home. Instead, she’ll probably kill someone in Florida.
Good. There are too many ignorant nurses or nurses who are just there because it pays well. I doubt there are significant numbers of truly good nurses (empathetic, knowledgeable, and competent). I used to work in a nursing school and there a way too many students who have no business being nurses.
As it should be. They can get vaccinated easily enough.
I’m mystified by this attitude. So you think people’s freedom of (uninformed, pathetically misled) choice should trump other people’s lives? Or you don’t believe COVID is contagious or potentially deadly, and all those people on ventilators are just actors?
And would your father have been any less bereft is his favorite nurse had died of COVID instead of flouncing off because her freedom to infect people was more important to her than her patients, including your father?
Do you not see your own failure of logic here? All of the people you mention here have made a conscious decision to not contribute to global health and, in fact, a decision to help interfere with global health.
If these people had followed the various guidelines consistently and from the beginning we probably would be having this discussion now, over a year later.
This pandemic, because of these people, will not end until enough people die or get a temporary immunity from Covid.
Why are you thinking this way?
As pointed it above, a much larger fraction of American of working age are vaccinated. And none of those who are unvaccinated will become unemployable. All of them can either get vaccinated or get a note from their doctor as to why it’s not safe for them to be vaccinated. It’s much easier to get vaccinated than to get a high school diploma, or even to obtain a copy of your birth certificate, which you’ll need to prove your are allowed to work. (Unless you have a passport or a green card or something.)
FWIW, nursing homes have always been understaffed. My wife wrote her capstone project for her BSN on nursing home understaffing (and suggesting they, by law, hire enough staff to meet the minimum standard of care – which they don’t). That was like ten years ago.