Nursing Homes

Ben Luckett: So you think it's like Bernie said? We're cheating nature?
Mary Luckett: Yes.
Ben Luckett: Well, I'll tell ya. The way nature's been cheating us, I don't mind cheating her a little.
--Cocoon

Ioannidis et al discussed the large fraction of COVID-19 deaths coming from nursing homes. Consistent with their findings, focused analysis of US data suggest that nursing homes currently account for about 40% of domestic fatalities.

Nursing home deaths account for more than 60% of deaths in several states. In Minnesota, almost 85% of all COVID-19 deaths come from nursing home communities.

Even with the susceptibility of the elderly to the coronavirus--a characteristic that has been understood since the early days of the pandemic, this number is astonishingly high. The intuitive policy response from the beginning was to implement measures to protect this vulnerable group.

Stunningly, it seems that policymakers in many states have been doing just the opposite. Officials in some states, including California, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, have been actively pushing COVID-19 elderly out of hospitals and into nursing homes. In many cases this action has subsequently ignited deadly infection spreads among residents.

Meanwhile, these same state officials remain committed to enforcing draconian lockdowns of their broad populations who, as the data continue to show, face minimal risk from the virus.

It is difficult to imagine a more upside down policy response.

What is not so difficult to imagine is the specter of lawsuits, and perhaps even criminal charges, brought against state officials whose policies have resulted in the deaths of perhaps tens of thousands of elderly nursing home residents. There can be little doubt that their actions have created the deadliest of all cul-de-sac effects.