Items
topic_interest is exactly
#Over60
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2020-03
Grandma and COVID-19
During the height of the pandemic in 2020, my family and I were super concerned about keeping the older members of our family safe. Keeping our 80+ year-old grandma safe was a challenge since she was under the impression that she was tougher than the virus, a mindset that seems to be shared across a lot of the elderly community. We tried not to visit her during the first couple months of the lockdowns, but eventually we went over to her house with masks on and stayed 6 feet apart. The pandemic created a difficult dilemma in which people wanted to keep their older loved ones safe, so they stayed away, but at the same time, the elderly were incredibly lonely as they had relied on family visits for stimulation and company. Now my entire family is vaccinated, so we can safely visit our grandmother, but the fear still lingers. -
2021-08-28
Visiting Grandma
This photograph is from when my mom, dad, brother, brother's fiancé, and I flew to Georgia to visit my declining grandmother. For my entire life, my grandma, my mom's mom, lived in the next town over, only about seven miles away. However, as she aged and as the isolation from the pandemic set in, my family decided that it would be best for her to move to Georgia to live with my aunt, my mom's sister. Although we tried to take care of my grandma from the start of the pandemic through when she left in October of 2020, we lived in perpetual uncertainty and fear of exposing her to the virus. Every time we had her come over for dinner, we were afraid that we were taking a gamble, especially when the pandemic was just starting. My grandma moved to a care facility in Georgia in April. Since my grandma, my family, and I were all vaccinated, we planned a short trip to make sure we got to see her one more time. Although we were masked and only had a limited amount of time, getting to see us again meant a tremendous amount to my grandma. -
2020-01-28
IMMY Labs offers POD to help distribute Oklahoma vaccinations
IMMY Labs is a local company in my area that had previously offered free COVID testing to Oklahomans. Starting last week IMMY Labs created a POD at the Embassy Suites in Norman, Oklahoma. This offered senior citizens and healthcare workers the opportunity to receive the Pfizer vaccine and automatically sign up for the follow up vaccination. The POD is processing approximately 1200 people a day. Before many people in my area were driving up to 150 or more miles, roundtrip, to try to get vaccines. This has greatly improved availability for the elderly in my area. -
2020-06-11
Chaplain Reassures Long-Term Care Workers in Minnesota
I found this image attached to an AARP article titled “How to Track COVID-19 Nursing Home Cases and Deaths in Your State.” The chaplain is holding a sign that reads, “You are not alone. You are loved.” The chaplain is expressing his faith through an act of service and love: supporting the frontline workers. It is a generous gesture, and one that I am sure resonates with the senior citizens at the care facility as well as their caretakers. -
2020-09-08
Sweden Criticized for Poor Response to Elderly COVID-19 Patients
Malcolm Brabant reports that, “Over ninety percent of Sweden’s [Covid-19] fatalities were over the age of 70. Half were in nursing homes. Oxygen wasn’t provided.” Sweden has seen an improvement in infection rates lately, but the country’s treatment of the elderly in the early days of the pandemic has been widely criticized. Many feel that Sweden’s elderly were shunted aside. -
2020-08-27
Covid-19 Disproportionately Affects Minorities
This article supports research findings indicating that Black and Hispanic communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The research also demonstrates a link between cases in nursing homes and communities. There are some challenges to addressing the severity of Covid’s impact on communities of color. As stated in the Discussion section, “Nursing homes are now required...to report cases and deaths on a regular basis, but they are not required to report the data by race and ethnicity, and few states include such information in their own public reporting….” I think this data should be included, since it will help future historians categorize the effects of Covid-19 by communities. -
2020-08-28
A San Andreas Nursing Home is Experiencing a Rise in COVID-19 Cases
A nursing home in San Andreas, California is experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases. Nursing homes can be a hot spot for infection as the residents are all at increased risk for the virus and live in a facility with several other people. Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties have had relatively low cases of COVID-19, though long term care facilities for the elderly remain a huge risk for infection. Governor Newsom is rolling out a new monitoring system in the coming days to place counties in the state under increased or reduced restrictions based on daily cases per 100,000 people testing positive. -
2020-06-13
90-Year-Old Couple Reunites after Wife Survives Coronavirus
Video from Today on NBC News about a 90-year-old couple who was separated when the wife contracted coronavirus and their celebratory reunion.