Ruth Silver Taube co-wrote an op-ed for San Jose Inside on California’s offer of $1000 a day to small care homes to house Covid-19-positive patients.
Nearly half of all deaths related to COVID-19 in California are linked to elder care facilities. That figure is more than 40 percent in Santa Clara County.
Despite these harrowing statistics, the state is offering residential care facilities a $1,000-a-day bounty to bring COVID-19 positive patients into facilities that are staffed by workers who themselves are often at high risk for the disease and that already house vulnerable elderly patients. According to a May 4 Mercury News article, Mike Dark, a staff attorney for watchdog group California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, wrote that that “these facilities are lacking in protective equipment for staff” and the staff are “just as vulnerable” as residents.
