State Vets Homes Hit Hard

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

In a Florida veterans home nine residents tested positive, one of them died, while on Long Island 40 were sickened and seven died. In Holyoke, Mass. 25 veterans died, all victims of coronavirus.
But they weren't all only just veterans they were residents of state run veterans homes and like elderly residents in nursing homes across the country they are dying in increasing numbers from the ongoing pandemic.
The deaths at the Massachusetts veterans home has prompted state Attorney General Maura Healey to launch an investigation. The home's superintendent was fired.
State veterans homes, which are not part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, are generally funded by state governments, though Maine's homes are run by a private corporation.
Other hard hit state programs include New Jersey where 10 deaths have been reported at a Paramus facility. A second Massachusetts veterans home has had three deaths and Oregon has had three deaths.
Still other state veterans health facilities reporting either covid-19 infections or covid deaths or both include Oregon, Maine, Washington, California and Alabama.
Experts attribute the high incidence of covid-19 in nursing homes to the vulnerability of the residents and the highly contagious nature of the virus.
One recently released study found that the covid-19 incidence was not as severe in other types of facilities for the elderly including an assisted facility.
The study made public today cited statistics from an assisted living facility and a senior independent living center in Seattle.
Citing the "rapid spread and high morbidity" with covid-19, two deaths were reported at the facilities during the study period."
Noting that the results differed markedly from data at skilled nursing facilities in the same area, the study found that the residents of the independent living and assisted living facility "do not live as closely together" and do not require skilled nursing care.
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