Melissa Bailey and Shoshana Dubnow report today that Covid cases have fallen by more than 80% among staff and residents of U.S. nursing homes:
Joan Phillips, a certified nursing assistant at a Florida nursing home, loved her job, but feared the danger of going to work in the pandemic. When the vaccines were available in December, he had a chance to get one.
Months later, the danger seems to have faded. Following the launch of Covid vaccines, the number of new Covid cases among nursing home staff fell by 83%, from 28,802 for the week ending December 20 to 4,764 for the week ending on Feb. 14, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
New Covid-19 infections among nursing home residents fell even more sharply, 89% in this period, compared to 58% of the general public, according to CMS and Johns Hopkins University.
These figures suggest that “the vaccine appears to have a dramatic effect in reducing cases, which is extremely encouraging,” said Beth Martino, a spokeswoman for the American Health Association and the National Center for Assisted Living, a group industrial.
“It’s a great relief for me,” said Phillips, who works at the North Beach Rehabilitation Center outside of Miami. Now, he said, he urges hesitant colleagues and anyone else who might “go out and get the vaccine.”
After a brutal year in which the pandemic killed half a million Americans, despite unprecedented measures to curb its spread, including masked disguises, physical distancing, school closures and economic shutdowns. , vaccines give hope that an end is reached.
It is difficult to find national data on healthcare worker infections in other settings. Research in other countries suggests that vaccines have caused large drops in infection. A study of publicly funded hospitals in England indicated that a first dose was 72% effective in preventing Covid-19 among workers after 21 days and 86% effective seven days after the second shot.
Lost on the Frontline, a one-year KHN and The Guardian data and reporting project, investigates more than 3,500 coveted deaths of U.S. health care workers. The monthly number has been declining since December, but deaths are often delayed weeks or months behind infections.
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