Trump Administration Archives ⋆ Cathy Cress

Rural Living Elders Greatest Risk to Perish in Massive Western Fires

September 17, 2020

ELDERLY 2XMORE LIKELY TO DIE IN FIRES

The U.S. Fire Administration estimates that older adults are more than twice as likely than the general population to die in fires. One-quarter of the Paradise residents, in the devastating fire that burnt down an entire California town in 2018, through PG&E Malfeasance had a disability which is double the statewide statistic. One geriatric care manager who lives there, lost his home and practice trying to rescue a local older client.

Decades of research confirm that the physical limitations that accompany advanced age make it much more difficult to escape disaster, but so do the social isolation and stubbornness that experts say are common among the elderly.

BREATHING PROBLEMS FOR SENIORS UBER RISK IN FIRES

The elderly are at the greatest risk for fire-related breathing problems according to the CDC.So if they just live in fire-prone areas and do not lose their home the very air they breathe can make them ill or actually kill them. Wildfire smoke can in the worst cases be deadly, especially among older people. Studies have shown that when waves of smoke hit, the rate of hospitalizations rises, and patients experience respiratory problems, heart attacks, and strokes.

In 23 counties, older Californians overwhelmingly choose to live in fire-prone areas. Including in San Luis Obispo County, where 82% do live in rural areas.

That means nearly 2 million older Californians live in areas where wildfire is a formidable threat. It is not only the elderly who are losing homes in these rural Forest fires but those in facilities.

According to NPR in San Francisco, there are more than 10,000 long-term care facilities in California, from six-bed assisted living homes to large nursing centers.

Their analysis found that 35% of these facilities are in risky areas. With as many as 105,000 residents to safeguard if fire comes, these care home operators must now consider how to evacuate during a pandemic, a more complicated and difficult task.

California is aging faster than the rest of the country. In 10 years, the state projects the number of people over 65 will grow to 8.6 million.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY FIRES TURNED REDWOODS INTO INFERNOS

In my county, Santa Cruz, wildfires in our Santa Cruz mountain forest burnt down 25 % of our county in the past month. Among the many senior facilities damaged was Brookdale Senior Living which was evacuated due to smoke damage and inhalation by residents, along with the Kaiser facility. Both had to send patients to the Bay area, where the Brookdale case, frail confused elders were sleeping on cots close to each other, risking COVID -19 and exacerbating their confusion, according to one daughter who moved her mother to her home in Santa Cruz permanently.
ELDERS COLLIDE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE

“There is absolutely a colliding of the events of both population aging and climate change,” said the University of South Florida gerontologist Kathryn Hyer.

TRUMP ANSWER CA MANAGE FOREST- YET FEDS CONTROL 57%- CA 3%

President Trump claimed when he came to California a few days ago that the problem with wildfires was forest management. Governor Newsome agreed but pointed out that 57% of California forests are managed by the federal government and 3% by the state of California. When it was pointed out in that state meeting that the problems with the forest were rooted in climate change, Trump’s answer was, it will get colder, you’ll see..

Trump has rolled back regulations, like auto emissions that prevented climate change- now ravaging our forests .“As a historic figure, he is one of the most culpable men in America contributing to the suffering and death that is now occurring through climate-related tragedy,” Jerry Brown, the former California governor who made climate change his signature issue, said in an interview on Sunday

It seems that it is only getting hotter, harder to breathe more dangerous for all Western residents

but radically more so for elders, who are number 1 in health problems, number 1 risk in COVID and breathing problems and live at home or in facilities in the middle of these mammoth forests, turned into infernos of death

Mourn Dead Essential Workers on Labor Day& Blame President

August 30, 2020

3000 Essential Workers Have Died on Front Line Worldwide

Labor Day is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. Instead, we mourn front line workers’ unnecessary deaths. Essential health care workers who have died worldwide of COVID -19 are thought by Amnesty International to be about 3000 and counting.

More than a month ago, Kaiser Health News put the US total at almost 600. The report said, “The overall figure is likely to be a significant underestimate due to under-reporting, while accurate comparisons across countries are difficult due to differences in counting.”

US Essential Worker Left Unprotected By PPE

“Health and essential workers have played an extraordinary role in this pandemic. But those so dedicated workers are often left unprotected by governments and systems that have failed to supply them with enough personal protective equipment (PPE), supplies, and resources to do their jobs.”( trash bags they got from FEMA, as you can see)

In April alone, there were an estimated 27 COVID-19-related health worker deaths in the USA, 106 in the UK, and 180 in Russia, with tens of thousands of infections. The actual numbers are probably much higher.

Although COVID Take it’s the biggest toll on the elderly, nurses, nursing students, and nurses aides at hard-hit nursing homes caring for the elderly, die young of COVID.

I am a social worker and have worked on the social work/nurse team, with nurses & nurses aides for 40 years, so this really matters to me as it should to all of us.

Trump Failed to Use Defence Production ACT to Make PPE

According to Kaiser this month it was over 900 and counting in the US. And as is so often said- it did not have to be this way. If Trump had used the Defence Production Act to get PPE made the PPE and distributed to essential workers, they would not have died. As cases mount in the south and the west where I live, lifesaving PPE- N-95 masks, gloves, gowns are not adequate although Trump keeps giving more dubious information that every worker had what they needed. Poor government preparation or actions, government missteps, and overburdened health care created this travesty

Mourn Essential Workers on Labor Day

So on labor day offer a thank you, a prayer, light a candle, create art -burn a stick of sage as the American Indians do -all in their memory – a ritual of mourning for these essential workers who did not have to die because the richest nation in the world could not give them simple protection.

Contact Your Legislator After Labor Day

Then contact your local legislator about the lack of PPE that the government is not sending to save another nurse, bus driver, care providers, doctor, policeman, social worker, firefighter who offered themselves up for us and died for our Presidents’ sins.

Why is CMS Loosening Nursing Homes Infection Control in Pandemic ?

May 9, 2020

When 20% of COVID-19 cases are in Nursing Homes -CMS Rolling Back Infection Control

Insanely CMS and the FEDS are considering rolling back infection control in a nursing home in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic -when more than 20 % of the cases in the US are in Nursing Homes.

The mind-boggling idea was reported in USA Today. A rule proposed last year by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would modify the amount of time infection prevention must devote to a facility from at least part-time to “sufficient time,” an undefined term that lets the facility decide how much time should be spent.

Why do you need infection control in a nursing home- even before COVID -19?

Over 4 million Americans are admitted to or reside in nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities each year and nearly one million persons reside in assisted living facilities. Data about infections that occur in these skilled nursing home include on a normal day before coronavirus

1 to 3 million serious infections occur every year in these facilities.
Infections include urinary tract infection, diarrheal diseases, antibiotic-resistant staph infections, and many others.
Infections are a major cause of hospitalization and death; as many as 380,000 people die of the infections in LTCFs every year.

Nursing Homes deaths May Be 50% of All Deaths in Pandemic

These infection control rationals were before COVID-19. Now, in the midst of this black plague of the 21st Century, it is thought, according to the Washington Post that nursing homes may account for 50% of death BEFORE infection control is further diluted by CMS.

Cities& States Reduce COVID-19 Risk in Nursing Homes -Feds Increase Them

In contrast to the blighted policy idea of the Federal government, Detroit, as a city, has tested every nursing home and in addition, is testing all staff and providing them with PPE.San Francisco is also now testing every resident of a nursing home. States like Maryland and Wisconsin and testing all nursing homes.

The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that at the end of the pandemic we may find out half of the deaths in the pandemic were from residents of nursing homes. In light of all of this carnage and potential destruction of the elder population in the US- why then are CMS and Trump loosening infection control? Is this throwing salt into the would of frail elders, madness, an attempt to delete people on social security, incompetence at CMS or CMS following the bedeviled destructive policy of the Trump administration? We need answers but will we as a country get them in time?