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Covid-19 Cases Rising Again in Nursing Homes Nationwide
Uptick portends more deaths among the most vulnerable and reveals a flaw in idea of natural herd immunity
With new Covid-19 cases surging across the country and the pandemic expected to get much worse, the number of new infections has begun inching back up in nursing homes after declining since late July, putting some of the most vulnerable people at risk — just as infectious-disease experts had predicted would happen.
The uptick reveals a major flaw in the logic circulating in the White House suggesting that the most vulnerable people, including older adults, could be protected while allowing the coronavirus to run its course in the general population with a goal of achieving natural herd immunity.
“The number one factor in keeping Covid out of our nursing homes, so we can protect our vulnerable population, is reducing the level of the virus in the surrounding community,” says Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, which produced the new report based on data from more than 14,000 long-term care facilities.
