Barbara Feder Ostrov, Contributing Writer for CalMatters, has reported on medicine and health policy for more than 15 years. She most recently covered California and national health issues for Kaiser Health News. Previously, she covered the medical beat for the San Jose Mercury News for eight years and edited the website of the Center for Health Journalism at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. She also worked at The Palm Beach Post and the Miami Herald. Her work has been published in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Atlantic.com, Salon, Scientific American, PBS NewsHour, NPR, CNN.com, Ms. Magazine and Women's Day among other media outlets. She has won awards from the Society for Women’s Health Research, the California Newspaper Publishers Association and the Florida Press Club. She is based in San Jose, California.
More than 9,000 people have died of COVID-19 in California nursing homes, and many others have suffered from isolation. But after a massive vaccination campaign, infections and deaths have plummeted — and nursing homes are cautiously reopening to visitors.
Más de 9,000 personas han muerto de COVID-19 en hogares de ancianos de California, y muchas otras han sufrido aislamiento. Pero después de una campaña de vacunación masiva, las infecciones y las muertes se han desplomado, y los hogares de ancianos están reabriendo cautelosamente a los visitantes.
The CEO of Blue Shield predicts it will take until the end of April to ease California’s backlog. “When you make millions of people eligible overnight, there's not millions of appointments immediately available,” he told CalMatters.
How will vaccines get into the arms of people in low-income communities? And the 40% allotment also raises questions about whether other Californians will be pushed lower on the priority list — particularly people with high-risk health conditions
¿Cómo llegarán las vacunas a los brazos de las personas en las comunidades de bajos ingresos? Y la asignación del 40% también plantea dudas sobre si otros californianos serán empujados más abajo en la lista de prioridades, en particular las personas con afecciones de salud de alto riesgo.
Los casos de COVID-19 en los hogares de ancianos de California se han desplomado 98% desde diciembre. Pero los centros de atención a largo plazo dicen que están esperando la orientación del estado antes de reabrir a las visitas familiares. “El sacrificio que han hecho nuestros mayores ha sido muy, muy difícil y ha causado mucho daño. Ahora es el momento de dejar de sacrificarlos ”, dijo un médico.
The decisions to reopen, however, still rest with school officials and labor unions. Newsom hopes the funding bill will prod them into holding in-person classes. Parent activists say it's not enough.
COVID-19 cases at California’s nursing homes have plummeted 98% since December. But long-term care facilities say they are waiting for state guidance before reopening to family visits. “The sacrifice our seniors have made has been very, very difficult and caused a lot of harm. Now is the time to stop sacrificing them," one doctor said.