QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, April 23, 2020 Page 8
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P Tragedy in nursing homes demands immediate action EDITORIAL
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t’s now becoming clear that the biggest tragedy of all in the coronavirus crisis is the carnage happening in our nation’s nursing homes, nowhere more so than right here in Queens. According to the state Department of Health, nearly 24 percent of COVID-19 deaths statewide as of Wednesday have been among people in nursing homes and adult care facilities. Of those 3,477 people who died, 760, or just about 22 percent, passed away in Queens. Dozens have died at a number of nursing homes here. The New Franklin Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Flushing has reported 45 deaths, while the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation in Glen Oaks said it has lost 44 people. The Sapphire Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Flushing has reported 26 deaths. Some of the numbers may prove to be even higher in the end. This is a tragedy, and one that could have been foreseen if not better prepared for. Nursing homes are notorious for being understaffed. The problem is that they rely on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements from the federal government to function, and those payments have not kept up with increased costs over the years. That has to change so that the elderly can be well cared for while the nursing homes are
still able to make a profit and therefore stay open. More immediately, in this crisis, if more doctors, other medical staff and supplies had been rushed into them earlier, maybe some of those deaths could have been averted. By March 11 it was known that 19 coronavirus deaths had been linked to the Life Care Center nursing home outside Seattle. On that date, hard as it is to believe, those 19 made up 61 percent of the total known COVID-19 fatalities in the United States, which then sat at 31. Today it’s more than 47,000. Nearly 15,000, or about a third, are in New York State — nearly a quarter of those in our nursing homes. Now the city is increasing its provision of personal protective equipment to both public and private nursing homes by 50 percent, a spokesman for Mayor de Blasio told the New York Post in an article published Wednesday. The spokesman said City Hall had sent 40,000 N95 face masks, 800,000 surgical masks, 1.5 million disposable gloves and 105,000 gowns and coveralls to the homes last week. And it has sent 210 clinical staffers, with plans to double that. The state would not say what it has provided nursing homes, and Gov. Cuomo, surprisingly, said it is not the state’s job to provide them with PPE. While that may be the
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The wise ‘Men in Black’ Dear Editor: Michael Gannon notes that “Men in Black” is an essential Queens movie because it explains how “that neighbor or subway passenger you swear has to be from another planet” may in fact be an extraterrestrial (“Queens flicks 2: The Second One,” qboro, April 16). It’s also worthy of note that this borough’s residents — contrary to the fears of Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Agent K, that “the only way these people get on with their happy lives is that they do not know about” the endless impending dangers such as “an intergalactic plague that’s about to wipe out life on this miserable little planet” — have more of the attitude of K and his fellow agents that such perennial crises are best faced without losing our cool, combining talent across cultural divides right here on Earth. Joel Schlosberg Bayside
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Get homeless off trains Dear Editor: The homeless have taken over the subways. It’s a major reason why more than 50 MTA workers have died. The homeless are probably major carriers of the coronavirus and they are unchecked, effectively turning the subway into petri dishes. © Copyright 2020 by MARK I PUBLICATIONS, INC. All rights reserved. Neither this newspaper nor any part thereof may be reproduced, copied, or transmitted in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, recording or by any information retrieval system without the express written permission of the publishers. This copyright is extended to the design and text created for advertisements. Reproduction of said advertisement or any part thereof without the express written permission of MARK I PUBLICATIONS, INC. is strictly prohibited. This publication will not be responsiblefor errors in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Bylined articles represent the sole opinion of the writer and are not necessarily in accordance with the views of the QUEENS CHRONICLE. This Publication reserves the right to limit or refuse advertising it deems objectionable. The Queens Chronicle is published weekly by Mark I Publications, Inc.at a subscription rate of $19 per year and out of state, $25 per year. Periodicals Postage Paid (USPS0013-572) at Flushing, N.Y. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Mark I Publications, Inc., 71-19 80th St., Suite 8-201, Glendale, NY 11385.
case technically, the catastrophe within them calls for the governor to use all the powers at his disposal to make life safer there. He’s hardly hesitated to use his authority before in this crisis, to his credit. He should now turn his attention more forcefully to nursing homes to save more lives. Inspectors must make sure the facilities are adequately staffed, and if they’re not, the state must get more professionals into them somehow. And it must insist that people be notified of their loved one’s status right away. We’ve heard too many stories of someone learning a family member was terribly ill only when it was too late. That’s unacceptable. On the federal level, at least 79 members of the House want the government to track and publish the number of cases and deaths in nursing homes to aid in the response, and Queens Rep. Grace Meng has written the president to ask him to increase funding for them and do more testing. It’s no surprise that nursing homes have suffered so much in the pandemic. The people there are elderly or somehow compromised by definition and are tightly packed together. Although it’s too late to provide help to thousands, we can and should act now before things get any worse. A good society respects its elders and protects them as best it can.
E DITOR
Our subway riders (including essential employees) face increased odds of dying because they are forced to compromise safe distancing in the subways since the homeless took over. CBS TV aired a clip of the 2 train on April 12 showing how the homeless had taken over several cars. The subway is the lifeline of NYC’s economy. No subway=no economy. A Catch-22 situation now exists. As long as the city remains closed, the homeless will continue to live in the subway. But the city can’t reopen safely until the subways are safe and virus-free. How do we accomplish that? The only way is to remove all homeless people from the subway — forcibly if necessary. You have 8.5 million New Yorkers whose lives and jobs are literally in a life or death situation due to the virus. It’s even more than that when you count all the commuters who
come from outside NYC. De Blasio has tried to voluntarily move the homeless into hotels. They are not taking him up on his offer. Cuomo hasn’t mentioned them at all. Giuliani and Bloomberg would have removed them by now. This lazy mayor couldn’t care less and is incompetent. I sympathize with the plight of the homeless, but the bottom line question is, “Does the safety and economic life or death or well -being of 9 million people take precedence over the rights of an estimated 70,000 homeless people (bowery.org)?” That’s a no brainer for me. What do you say? Every day literally kills people and makes it that much harder for the city to recover. Now is the time to save the subways and literally save our lives. Martin Bender Flushing