Although nursing homes occupied a healthy portion of its final report, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis generally spared those providers at a hearing Wednesday.
The report revealed new data gleaned from the gathering of information from five of the biggest for-profit nursing home companies. Low staffing, pay and COVID booster shot uptake defined the sector, according to the sample statistics. Earlier in 2022, nursing home advocates and the companies responded to the revelations with accusations of skewed interpretations of the data and defenses of their members and staff.
The report, which was released Friday, was more than two and a half years in the making. After 42 hearings and briefings and 37 reports and analyses, the final report settled on 30 recommendations. The goal is to prepare appropriately for any future pandemic, and avert problems experienced responding to the COVID-19 waves.
“We must invest in next-generation tools — including vaccines and treatments — to be prepared not only for future variants of the coronavirus, but for other unknown pathogens that may reach us in the future,” said Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), the subcommittee’s chairman in opening remarks.
“We must strengthen supply chains, increase domestic manufacturing, and ensure our stockpiles are well supplied to make sure essential workers are not left exposed when the next emergency comes. We must enact universal paid sick, medical, and family leave to help Americans protect not only their jobs, but the health of their families and co-workers in times of need.”
Clyburn also said the federal government must get better at delivering emergency relief to individuals, as well as loans to businesses during such times of crises.
In the nearly three years since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the United States, more than 100 million Americans have been infected with the virus — some with lasting consequences — and more than 1 million Americans died. As of the end of November, nearly 165,000 U.S. nursing home residents and staff had died from COVID, and 2.8 million had been infected, according to CMS figures that are widely believed to be undercounted. According to a KFF report in February, more than 200,000 nursing home residents and staff had died from COVID.
