President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that vaccinations for COVID-19 would be required of staff as a condition for nursing homes to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding. It was a smart use of federal leverage that especially benefits Florida, where the vaccination rate among nursing home employees (46 percent) is the second-worst in the country, leading only Louisiana (45 percent). And it’s a critical step to better protecting nursing home residents.
While Gov. Ron DeSantis has lauded his administration’s response to COVID among vulnerable seniors, Florida is 48th among the 50 states in the percentage of nursing home residents (72 percent) who are fully vaccinated, besting only Arizona (71 percent) and Nevada (69 percent).
The lag in vaccinations and the surge of the more highly-infectious delta variant come as Florida has been particularly hard hit in recent weeks by an increase in cases and deaths among both nursing home residents and staff. For example, for the week ending Aug. 15, the most recent data available, Florida accounted for more than one-fourth of all new infections of nursing home residents in America, a rate more than four times the national figure. And the deaths of 52 nursing home residents in Florida that week was more than double the national rate. In other words, the most vulnerable in Florida are still vulnerable.
The lesson is that more staff and residents alike need to get the vaccine. Biden’s new policy will push more nursing homes to do the right thing. But valuable time has been lost. Vaccination rates among nursing home staff have barely budged for months, reflecting the work Florida faces in getting inoculations up to speed. Residents need to get the message, too. Going without a vaccine in these group settings is an invitation to tragedy.
And while rare, breakthrough infections occur, and seniors appear especially at risk. Nearly three-fourths of the 8,054 cases of breakthrough infection involving hospitalization or death reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through Aug. 9 involved patients aged 65 years or older. This is a big gap to plug in Florida’s COVID response.
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