The COVID race: Vaccines 90% effective in frontline workers, but variant cases rising
By
Alicia Lasek
Mar 30, 2021
The pace of U.S. vaccinations must hold up against the effects of spreading virus variants to keep further outbreaks under control, according to the CDC and expert observers.
Free COVID tests now available to all aging services providers
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jan 09, 2023
Nursing homes and other aging services providers across the US can now access free COVID-19 test kits through an expanded partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services and LeadingAge.
CDC to fund LTC infection control strike teams nationwide starting in October
By
Alicia Lasek
Sep 20, 2021
The initiative will allow states and other U.S. jurisdictions to “staff, train and deploy” strike teams to help long-term care operations with known or suspected COVID-19 infections, CDC says.
Geriatrician survey: Swift telehealth adoption was ‘instrumental’ to pandemic patient care
By
Alicia Lasek
Mar 18, 2022
Responses by Genesis HealthCare physicians offer insight into the dramatic shift in care delivery that took place as COVID-19 raged in 2020.
Common autoimmune drugs reduce mortality, up clinical status in COVID-19: NIH
By
Alicia Lasek (f3)
Jun 06, 2022
Two commonly used autoimmune drugs could be used in addition to standard-of-care treatments to improve COVID-19 outcomes, the agency says.
Wait, what did you just say, CMS?
By
Jacqueline Vance, RNC, CDONA/LTC
Feb 15, 2022
Keeping up with the constantly changing guidance between the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regulations would make even a rocket scientist’s...
Everything matters
By
Gary Tetz
Jul 22, 2021
I’m a slow and resistant student in the classroom of life. And perhaps the truth I face most reluctantly is how unwelcome and painful challenges teach lessons that I probably wouldn’t learn any other...
Safety means ‘seeing the virus’: Atria recounts rollout of 18,000 tests early in pandemic
By
Alicia Lasek
Jun 09, 2021
Finding a way to conduct COVID-19 testing among 31,000 residents and staff members across multiple states helped the senior living giant to “seal out” outbreaks and show that its communities were safe...
I’ve just seen a face
By
Gary Tetz
May 27, 2021
I don’t want to put a hex on the situation with a premature celebration, but the downward trajectory of the pandemic makes it appear that long-term care people can finally perhaps maybe start discretely...
Seven-month study supports benefits of COVID-19 antivirals in seniors
By
Alicia Lasek
Dec 15, 2022
With monoclonal antibodies no longer effective against newer strains of SARS-CoV-2, the findings support prescribing the antiviral pill Paxlovid to eligible patients, doctors say.