The coronavirus has devastated US senior care homes. We spoke to frontline staff about their grief and heartbreak – and how they’re trying to keep their loved ones safe
As many as 1.5 million seniors live in nursing homes across the country. More than 28,000 of those seniors and their caregivers have died from coronavirus; combined with nursing home workers, they make up 35% of all Covid-19 deaths in the US. Beyond other determinants – region, age, frailty, underlying conditions – one factor could have the greatest impact on elders’ mortality: their caretaker’s ability to effectively do their jobs.
While media attention has focused on the service of doctors and nurses in US hospitals, nursing home workers have remained largely invisible, perhaps because the workforce is made up of America’s most neglected – the majority are women, more than one third are black, almost 20% are immigrants.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3dB1N90
