WASHINGTON —
According to research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is a relationship between lagging vaccination rates among nursing home staff with a national increase in COVID-19 infections and deaths at those facilities in July.
A specially affected facility in the Grand Junction, Colorado area is at the center of a federal investigation, as agents found that many workers were not inoculated.
The case has raised concerns among public health practitioners that successful vaccine protection of the elderly – the most vulnerable population – could be in jeopardy as the more aggressive delta variant spreads throughout the world. country.
Nationally, about 59% of nursing home staff have been vaccinated, about the same percentage as the overall proportion of fully inoculated adults, but significantly lower than the roughly 80% of residents who are vaccinated, according to the US government program for medical assistance for the elderly, Medicare.
And some states have much lower vaccination rates, around 40%.
Some health policy experts are urging governments to close the gap, demanding that all staff in nursing homes be vaccinated, an order that the administration of President Joe Biden has been reluctant to issue.
Nursing home operators fear a mandatory measure will backfire, causing many vaccine-reluctant employees to simply quit their jobs.
The vast majority of fully vaccinated people who become infected with the delta variant have been found to have only mild symptoms.
However, “older adults may not respond fully to the vaccine and there is a huge risk that someone will contract the virus,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean of public health practice at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the United States. Johns Hopkins University.
“Vaccination of workers in nursing homes is a national emergency because the delta variant is a threat even for those who are already vaccinated,” he said.
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