Anxiety grows as long-term care awaits COVID-19 vaccines

Frustration is heightened by the pace of COVID-19 vaccines in long-term care settings, where some homes are still waiting for the first shots while defending a virus that could devastate their residents.

The main pharmacy chains in charge of firing at these sites are far behind in vaccinating residents and staffing the residences. But some other types of group residences will not receive the first doses until mid-February or later, despite being among the top priorities for shooting.

CVS and Walgreens have begun pushing for mass vaccination in almost every state and say they are following the timeline. But advocates and resident experts are concerned about delays in the delivery of vaccines that are available for more than a month.

“Every week you wait and don’t get vaccinated is an important thing here,” said David Grabowski, a professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School. “I have a feeling this process is still too slow.”

Government officials placed residents and long-term care personnel among their top vaccination priorities after they authorized the emergency use of Pfizer and Moderna features late last year. This includes the two nursing homes, where residents receive medical care 24 hours a day; assisted living facilities, where people usually need less help; and other types of collective housing.

Vaccinations proceeded quickly in some states such as West Virginia, which did not depend on pharmacy chains and Connecticut.

But, as with other aspects of the release, the results have been generally messy. In many places, home operators and relatives of residents have seen with frustration how states opened up vaccine eligibility to other populations before finishing work in long-term care homes.

Laura Vuchetich says her elderly parents live in a community of people with Milwaukee care and need the wrong shots. But they have been told they won’t get them until mid-February, even when pharmacies have started delivering hundreds of doses to younger people, including a healthy friend of hers.

“They’re supposed to be at the head of the line,” he said. “It’s in the mid-80s and my mother had a heart attack last year. It’s just disconcerting to me. “

These houses have been severely affected by the coronavirus.

A federal government study last fall found that there was an average of one death among every five residents of care centers with COVID-19 in states that provide data. This compares to one death in every 40 people with the virus in the general population.

The government commissioned CVS and Walgreens to administer the shootings at long-term care sites in almost every state. Each vaccine requires two shots a few weeks apart and CVS and Walgreens say they have closed first-dose clinics in residences.

The chains plan three visits to each site. CVS spokesman TJ Crawford said most residents will be fully vaccinated after the second visit and the vast majority of assisted living facilities and other residences will have their third visit in mid-March. Some clinics will end in April.

While they wait, people who work and live in these places are trapped in limbo, hoping the virus won’t spread or return them, said Nicole Howell, who runs a California-based nonprofit. which advocates for long-term care advocates.

“They are essentially at the front door fighting this disease with disinfectants and limited staff,” said Howell, executive director of the Ombudsman Services in Contra Costa, Solano and Alameda counties.

Severine Petras saw a COVID-19 outbreak develop in a Pennsylvania home that her company operates a couple of weeks before the first vaccines arrived. The director general of Priority Life Care said the recent outbreak affected a “significant” number of staff and some residents, including one person who died.

Vaccine programming has been slow in this state, he said.

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

Petras said she is frustrated in part because it was known that COVID-19 cases would increase after the holidays. You want vaccines scheduled in advance to protect against this.

Since Sunday morning, 3.5 million doses have been administered in long-term care centers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is, a third of the approximately 10 million vaccines Grabowski estimates will be needed to fully protect residents and employees.

“It almost looks like we did this backwards, where they contracted with pharmacies and let them set the schedule instead of saying,‘ Here’s the schedule you have to meet, ’” he said.

Pharmacy chains have faced several challenges. In some locations, a high percentage of staff have turned down shots on initial visits. Companies also had to set up thousands of clinics and reschedule some in places where COVID-19 outbreaks developed.

CVS and Walgreens claim that states determined when they could start taking photos at assisted living facilities and that they have finished first-dose clinics when they were allowed to start in December. But other states did not allow them to start until mid-January. They also say they invest thousands of employees in the effort.

Still, Grabowski and Howell say outside help may be needed to speed up the effort in some areas.

In New York, the Empire State Association of Assisted Living contacted state regulators because some homes had initial clinics scheduled for March, executive director Lisa Newcomb said. Clinic dates were moved mainly to the end of January.

“We had some members who were very, very upset about having to wait until March,” he said.

In Florida, the state incorporated an outside company to help administer vaccines if pharmacy chains were unable to schedule a first clinic until late January.

Innovation Senior Living CEO Pilar Carvajal said the company called one of their homes that did not yet have a set clinical date and that she showed up the next day to start taking photos.

He said vaccines should be complete at his six Florida assisted living facilities by the end of March. Then, you can stop worrying about employees bringing the virus to work after doing something as simple as going out to eat.

“That’s the only thing we can’t control,” he said. “The sooner we can get vaccinated, obviously the safer we will be.”