This is my dad, Bob Sarlin.
He lives in a NY nursing home where 200+ residents across 5 facilities have #COVIDー19.
Staff get 1 N-95 mask a week, 1 gown a shift. They can't isolate the sick.
"I feel like I'm spreading the virus," an aide said.
Read: nbcnews.com/news/us-news/n…
The CEO is openly saying they can't protect their residents and asking relatives to take them.
Few can. We are desperately trying, but dad is disabled from a stroke and requires special care. Last night he was hospitalized with trouble breathing.
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/n…
I rarely discuss my personal life here. I’m not sure I’ve even tweeted that my wife is @suzykhimm, who wrote the article.
But there are outbreaks in 400 nursing homes across the country, and I want to give a picture of it. This is the deadliest front.
nbcnews.com/news/us-news/n…
The CEO requested 28k gowns and face shields from the city and got 1k.
He says PPEs are going to hospitals first, which are desperate. But it leaves the most vulnerable in an uncontrolled outbreak.
This is the context in which Trump is calling states "insatiable" for supplies.
ArchCare is reaching out to private vendors themselves, but it’s a mess. They’re turning to unvetted outlets with little luck and want government to help sort out who can be trusted.
There are also few tests available, and even a 24-36 hour turnaround is too slow to keep up.
There’s been reporting on triage at hospitals, leaving sicker patients to help those with a better chance.
Without supplies, New York is effectively triaging its nursing homes right now.
Many, many, many seniors will die. Many are already dying right now across the country.
We don’t want special treatment. When Suzy and I first called about my dad, we were NOT reporting. We assured it was personal and off-record. We know providers are very wary of leaks and were shocked to find ArchCare begging us to tell the world what's going on. It's that bad.
Our story also shows why isolating only the vulnerable and letting others go back to business as usual is so deadly.
There's no way to isolate the vulnerable when an area is compromised; nursing home staff will immediately get sick. Over 1m could die.
nbcnews.com/politics/meet-…
In some ways, we’re lucky. I can call my dad every day. His 2yo grandson loves talking to Zeyde, who loves making silly faces at him.
But many residents have dementia or physically can't use phones and are cut off from families entirely.
This will go on for months nationwide.
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