Anxiety increases while long-term care awaits COVID-19 vaccines

Frustration is developing at the rate of COVID-19 vaccinations at long-term care facilities, where some homes are still waiting for the first shots while repelling a virus that could devastate their residents.

The major pharmacy chains that have shot up in these places are far in the vaccination of residents and staff of nursing homes. However, some other types of group residences will only receive the first doses until mid-February or later, although this is one of the top priorities for shots.

CVS and Walgreens have started a massive vaccination in almost all states, and they say they are proceeding according to schedule. But residents and lawyers are worried about delays in delivering vaccines that have been available for more than a month.

“Every week you wait and don’t get vaccinated is a big deal here,” says David Grabowski, a professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School. “My point is that this process is still too slow.”

Government officials have placed residents and staff for long-term care among their top vaccination priorities after approving the emergency use of Pfizer and Moderna shots late last year. This includes both nursing homes, where residents receive medical care 24 hours a day; assistance facilities, where people generally need less assistance; and other types of group homes.

In some states, West Virginia, which did not rely on the pharmacy chains, and Connecticut fed fast.

But – as with other aspects of implementation – the results were generally uncomfortable. In many places, home operators and family members of residents watched in frustration as states became eligible for other populations before the work was completed in long-term care homes.

Laura Vuchetich says her older parents live in a community assisted by Milwaukee and need shots. They were told they would only get it in mid-February, although pharmacies had started handing out hundreds of doses to younger people, including a friend of hers who was healthy.

“They’re supposed to be in the front row,” she said. ‘They’re in their mid – 80s, and my mother had a heart attack last year. This is just amazing to me. ”

Such homes were severely affected by the coronavirus.

A federal government study found last fall that an average of one death occurred among every five residents with COVID-19 relief facilities in states that provided data. It can be compared to one death among the 40 people with the virus in the general population.

The government has instructed CVS and Walgreens to administer the shots at long-term care facilities in almost every state. Each vaccine requires two shots a few weeks apart, and CVS and Walgreens say they have wrapped up first-class clinics in nursing homes.

The chains are planning three visits to each location. CVS spokesman TJ Crawford said most residents would be fully vaccinated after the second visit, and the vast majority of relief facilities and other residences would have their mid-term visits by mid-March. Some clinics start in April.

While they wait, the people who work and live in those places are stuck in the hope that the virus will not spread or return to them, says Nicole Howell, who runs a non-profit California business that strives for long-term caregivers.

“They are, in fact, at the front door to fight this disease with disinfectants and limited staff,” said Howell, executive director of the Ombudsman Services in the contra Costa, Solano and Alameda.

Severine Petras has seen a COVID-19 outbreak develop in a assisted living home in Pennsylvania operating her business a few weeks before the first vaccines. The CEO of Priority Life Care said the recent outbreak affected a “significant” amount of staff and some residents, including one person who died.

Vaccination of vaccines was slow in the condition, she said.

“We should have had at least one round of vaccinations there,” she said. “It would have helped tremendously.”

Petras said she was frustrated in part because it was common knowledge that COVID-19 cases would increase after the holidays. She wishes vaccines had been scheduled earlier to protect against them.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3.5 million doses were given in long-term care facilities on Sunday morning. This is about one-third of the approximately 10 million vaccines needed, according to Grabowski, to fully protect residents and employees.

“It almost feels like we have deteriorated where they contracted with the pharmacies and had the schedule drawn up against the words, ‘Here is the schedule you have to meet,'” he said.

The pharmacy chains faced several challenges. In some places, a high percentage of staff turned down the shots from the first time. The companies also had to set up thousands of clinics and reschedule some in places where COVID-19 outbreaks developed.

According to CVS and Walgreens, the states are determined when they can start shooting after relief efforts, and they finished the first dose of clinics when they were admitted in December. But other states did not allow them until mid-January. They also say that they are employing thousands of employees for this.

Nevertheless, Grabowski and Howell say outside help may still be needed to speed up efforts in some areas.

In New York, the Empire State Association of Assisted Living contacted regulators because the first clinics were scheduled to be housed in March, executive director Lisa Newcomb said. The clinical dates were then mostly moved to the end of January.

“We had some members who were very, very upset because they had to wait until March,” she said.

In Florida, the state brought in an outside company to help deliver vaccines if the pharmacy chains could only plan a first clinic in late January.

Pilar Carvajal, CEO of Innovation Senior Living, said the company called one of its homes that had not yet set a clinic date and arrived the next day to deliver shots.

She said the vaccination should be completed by her end of March in Florida at her six aid facilities in Florida. Then she can stop worrying about employees bringing the virus to work after doing something as simple as going out to eat.

“It’s the only thing we can not control,” she said. “The sooner we can vaccinate, the safer we will naturally be.”