Daily Archives: February 6, 2021

Long-term care facilities have some protections when it comes to pandemic-era lawsuits, lawyers say. Many states have passed civil immunity laws that protect businesses from COVID-19-related litigation, except in cases of willful, reckless, intentional or grossly negligent misconduct.

They dont completely get rid of the opportunity for a plaintiff to sue; they just make it a lot harder, Idelevich said. Were seeing creative lawyers try to get around all of these immunity statutes that are coming out from all of the states.

There is also the possibility that plaintiffs who successfully challenge immunity in one state could create a domino effect across the country. It would create enough media buzz around it that I think youd start seeing copycat lawsuits, Idelevich said.

Defense lawyers are also claiming the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, known as the PREP Act, which offers immunity to liability for COVID-19 countermeasures, covers all COVID-19 lawsuits at long-term care facilities, but courts so far have disagreed, Stahle said. In those cases, lawsuits that were sent to federal court were remanded back to state courts.

Its all in flux, she said.

Trying to obtain immunity through the PREP Act puts cases in limbo and delays the process for getting families answers, Richardson said.

Families want to hold the nursing home accountable for what errors and mistakes theyve caused. They also want to know what happened, Richardson said.

Because long-term care facilities have been closed to visitors to prevent the spread of COVID, family members are not able see their loved ones and often arent able to intervene until things seem severe, Stahle said. In Missouri, where Stahle practices, calls to the states elder abuse hotline are down from the previous year.

Never in her career has Stahle seen so many severe lawsuits involving nursing homes than in the past year. Her firm alone is handling fatal cases unrelated to COVID-19 where a resident allegedly drowned in the bathtub, a residents wound became infested with maggots and a resident died from extreme dehydration.

We are seeing neglect like never before, Stahle said. Youre getting these severe cases all at the same time.

The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living and some of its state affiliates have advocated for reasonable, limited liability protections that defend staff and providers for their good faith efforts during this challenging time.

We understand that loved ones are grieving and looking for answers, but this is a vicious virus and an unprecedented public health crisis, AHCA/NCAL said in a prepared statement. Caregivers are doing everything they can, often with limited resources and ever-changing information. Providers or individual healthcare workers who were following government guidance should not be held responsible for their good faith efforts during this once-in-a-century pandemic.

Long term care providers are already facing a financial crisis due to COVID. Compounded with an excessive litigation environment, thousands of long-term care facilities would be forced to close their doors, in turn, displacing tens of thousands of vulnerable residents and limiting access to critical services for our nations seniors.

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Long-term care providers prepare to fend off COVID-19 lawsuits - Modern Healthcare

The good news is that Texas is finally seeing COVID-19 hospitalizations and cases trend downward after a holiday season marked by a record-breaking surge that pushed hospital systems and health care workers to their limits.

The bad news is that there are still more Texans getting sick and being hospitalized for the coronavirus than this summer, when the state was in the throes of the first wave.

And while vaccinations are reaching more people every day, health care experts warn that this doesnt mean Texas is out of the woods. They say people should remain vigilant and continue following safety guidelines like mask-wearing and social distancing, especially as new variants of the virus continue to emerge. With Super Bowl Sunday around the corner, many are concerned about super spreader events that could undo the modest progress the state has experienced in the past few weeks.

Cases peaked in mid-January at an average of more than 22,000 per day. By Thursday, the average had decreased to around 16,500 per day. COVID-19 hospitalizations have also dipped from an all-time high of more than 14,000 patients on Jan. 12 to 10,523 reported patients on Thursday.

Texas is still experiencing more than 40% more daily cases on average than it saw during the previous summer peak for confirmed cases.

The fact that things are decreasing, it doesn't mean that we [get] to relax because every time we've done that, things go back really, really bad, said Cesar Arias, a professor of infectious diseases at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Broadly, Texas health officials say the reason for the recent dip in numbers is because the state is coming off a spike related to gatherings from Thanksgiving and the December holiday season. But a combination of vaccines for health care workers and a decrease in large gatherings could also be contributing to the downward trends, said Philip Huang, director of health and human services in Dallas County.

Vaidehi Shah, Waco-McLennan Countys senior epidemiologist, added even before the pandemic began, January and February usually didnt see as much travel a trend that has helped lower positive case rates this year.

Still, more than 37,000 Texans have died, and there is still a long way back to normal, Arias said.

Comparatively, we are nowhere near to where we should be, to be able to control this pandemic, Arias said. Were getting to the peak of that exposure, and theres probably much more people that are infected than we have been able to detect. So maybe its scratching the surface.

Shah said she hopes hospitalization patterns in Waco will continue to improve at similar rates. By the beginning of January, COVID-19 patients were being treated in more than 30% of hospital beds in that region, a number that has since dropped in half.

During the pandemic, Shah said the trend has been a rise in cases, followed by a rise in hospitalizations, then a rise in deaths.

And when the numbers go down, it goes in a similar pattern, Shah said. So [our region] did start seeing a reduction in cases about two to three weeks ago Were really hopeful well see that same thing with fatality numbers as well.

Medical professionals are also worried by the new COVID-19 mutations that have emerged in Texas and across the country over the past few months. The variants have the potential to be more contagious and could lead to another increase in case rates and hospitalizations down the line.

But Arias said hes hopeful proliferation of the COVID-19 vaccines will help mitigate that spread. While the vaccine may be effective on new mutations as well, Arias said there are still factors that prevent vulnerable populations, like people of color, from receiving a dose in the first place.

I dont think we still have a very good plan to cover those at the moment, Arias said. Those are most likely where these situations are going to emerge in terms of the system viruses or mutated viruses that transmit better. So aggressive vaccination is really the only way out.

Stephen Love, president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, said hes worried about Super Bowl parties as another source of spread. Love said while people are often vigilant in settings like grocery stores, that level of caution tends to diminish at small gatherings.

They get lax when they get home, Love said. I think a lot of the spread weve seen, especially during the holidays,and right after the holidays, didnt occur out in public it occurred in the home.

Mandi Cai contributed to this report.

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Texas COVID-19 cases trend down from record highs, still higher than summer - The Texas Tribune

Since last year humanity was shaken by fear and uncertainty due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus, bringing to light the fragility and vulnerability of human existence. To fight against the propagation of this virus, the human family tried to adapt itself to this unprecedented and challenging situation by observing social distancing and lockdowns, the closing of borders and the massive use of digital technology. Pope Francis has often said that the virus brought us together and only in solidarity can we get out of this pandemic.

This year, vaccines have become available, thus, bringing much hope, but also a wider gap in inequality. The rich nations of the Global North that poured money into the production of the vaccines are now waiting for a return on their investment. It is believed that the miracle of the vaccines would reignite the global machinery. This has led to a kind of focus on the North, shown in nationalism and protectionism. The Global South, where the majority of the poor live, is left out.

Pope Francis encouraged people to get vaccinated because it was one way of exercising responsibility towards others and collective well-being. He reiterated the need for vaccines for all, especially for the most vulnerable and needy in all regions on the planet. Before all others: the most vulnerable and needy! We are at a crucial moment, an opportunity to live the miracle of charity, through addressing together the present challenge.

The access to vaccines across the world has not been as equitable as it should be. It is sad to note that not all nations and those who want or need the vaccine can get it because of supply issues, while in our interconnected world, the vaccines must be made available equitably.

Since every life is inviolable, nobody must be left out. The poor, minorities, refugees, the marginalised are the most exposed to the virus. Taking care of them is a moral priority because abandoning them puts them and the global community at risk. Our collective well-being depends on how we care for the least.

As we face a global emergency, political leaders must look beyond the interests of their own nations and political groups. This pandemic is a global human security problem that threatens the whole human family. Addressing the vaccines issue from the perspective of a narrow national strategy might lead to a moral failure in meeting the needs of the most vulnerable across the globe.

The current vaccines crisis must be seen in the wider context of the global health situation. Many of the least developed nations still lack basic medical infrastructures and the means of storing the vaccines. Moreover, people in distant rural areas are not sensitised and are exposed to other infectious diseases that remain prevalent.Given this context, the international community should have a holistic, multi-stakeholder approach to avoid the danger of the pandemic getting out of hand in the Global South which may then lead to a global humanitarian crisis again.

The debt of low-income countries should be reviewed. The remission of debt could be a means for generating funds for the multi-stakeholders, Faith-Based Organisations in particular, to upgrade the medical services and facilities in these countries. The money that is meant to pay a poor countrys debt could be spent for strengthening health security.

The question of the patent on the vaccines must also be considered urgently to identify localised production in Africa, Latin America and Asia and accelerate access to the vaccines before it is too late. Involving local actors, in particular Faith-based Organisations, is important because they have the basic structures and the necessary contact with the most vulnerable people such as migrants, the internally displaced and the marginalised.

In line with the observations made by the Dicastery for promoting Integral Human development Vaccines for all: 20 points for a fair and healthier world, Caritas Internationalis urges the decisions makers and the United Nations to act on the following, namely:

Call for a Security Council meeting to address the issue of access to the vaccines as a global security problem with firm political decisions based on multilateralism.

Undertake the debt remission of the poorest countries as quickly as possible and use the funds obtained to upgrade the medical and health systems in these countries.

Promote the local production of vaccines in different technical hubs in Africa, Latin America and Asia and make them available in the next six months by addressing the issue of patent and technical collaboration with the poorer nations.

Allocate financial and technical support to the local Civil Society Organisations, and to Faith-Based Organisations in particular, to ensure the preparation of local communities awareness and capacity building to prepare them to have access to preventive care.

H.E. Luis Antonio Card. Tagle,President of Caritas Internationalis

H.E. Peter Kodwo Appiah Card. Turkson,Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development

Aloysius John,Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis

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Urgent action for access to COVID-19 vaccines nobody should be left out - World - ReliefWeb

Feb. 5, 2021 -- The Biden administration is pushing to make quick at-home tests for COVID-19 available to more Americans.

In a media call on Friday, Andy Slavitt, the White House senior adviser for the pandemic response, told reporters that the administration was working with six companies under the auspices of the Defense Production Actto surge manufacturing of at-home test kits with the goal of, by summer, having millions of Americans being able to access at-home tests.

So far, the plan is short on details. He didnt name the companies or the tests but said more announcements would be coming shortly.

At-home tests are one of the key steps to getting back to normal life, Slavitt said.

While the U.S. waits for vaccines to quench the pandemic, experts believe an important way to control the virus and fully reopen the economy could be to use quick, cheap paper strip tests to find people who could spread COVID-19.

The tests use saliva or a swab from inside the nose, mixed into a bit of solution. Users drop the solution onto a paper strip, much the way home pregnancy tests work.

The tests use proteins embedded in the paper to recognize and grab onto key pieces of the virus. When the virus is found, another indicator -- like a line or a plus sign -- changes color to show the result.

Because the tests latch on to a part of the coronavirus that is not mutating, they should still work well to detect even the new variant forms of the virus.

Regulators have been wary of approving them because they have a higher rate of false negatives, compared to gold-standard PCR tests, which are run in a lab.

Instead, the results are most accurate when a person has a lot of virus circulating in their body, typically a day or two before they start showing symptoms to a few days after getting sick.

While that may make them less reliable for diagnosing a COVID-19 infection in someone who has been sick or carrying the virus for a while, testing experts say that makes them great to use as screening tools -- a way to catch people who are contagious and isolate them before they can spread the virus.

Michael Mina, PhD, an assistant professor at Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an expert in diagnostic testing, has been a vocal proponent of rapid tests to control the spread of the virus. He said he has taken no funding from any testing companies, though he has been talking to many of them about their technologies.

This test is as powerful as it is because it will find you when youre positive. It wont tell you that you were positive 2 weeks ago, like PCR will tell you that you were positive 2 weeks ago, he said, And it will give it to you in a time when it is actionable, in 15 minutes.

Mina says if the tests are cheap enough, people could test themselves before they go to work, two to three times a week, for example, to know when they need to stay home so they dont run the risk of infecting their co-workers. The tests could be used at the entrances of sports arenas, concerts, and airports to help catch people who are contagious and may not know it because they arent showing any symptoms.

He said the strategy many people are trying to use now -- testing themselves a few days before they travel or visit family -- is useless, and I can't say it enough. That is a pointless waste of money, he said in a call with reporters on Friday.

The best thing you can possibly do is test yourself the moment right before youre walking into whatever it is, whether it's work or school or an event or the grocery store, whatever it might be, he said.

The success of a plan like this depends on having many rapid tests and making them cheap enough so people can use them regularly.

Slavitt said the U.S. was on its way to that goal.

In addition to the tests announced on Friday, Slavitt said the U.S. would be working with an Australian company called Ellume to get 8.5 million of their tests to Americans by the end of the year. That test uses a device that connects to a smartphone app to give people test results in about 15 minutes. It can also connect to public health reporting systems to help health authorities track positive cases.

Mina said he doesnt think the Ellume test can be an effective screening tool. For one thing, its price may put it out of reach for regular use. When it was authorized in December, the company said the kit to do the test would cost about $30, which is too expensive for people and businesses to use frequently. Mina said the quantity ordered by the U.S. would only amount to about 3,000 tests a day, not nearly the millions of daily tests the U.S. would need to be using for a while to control the spread of the virus.

Thats nothing, he said. We have wasted money on it.

So far, the FDA has declined to approve other rapid, fully over-the-counter tests for home use, saying their results so far have not been accurate enough to meet the agencys standards for diagnostic tests. Two other tests that deliver results at homehave been approved but they require a prescription.One is being made by a company called Lucira and costs$50. The other is the $25 BinaxNow test, which is made by Abbott.

Mina says that if the rules were more flexible, the FDA could approve several new tests and get them to Americans very quickly.

I don't think that waiting until the summer is good, he said in a call with reporters on Friday. I am encouraged that the administration is making multiple steps right now to try to signal that they are going to be pushing for speedier access to testing, but I think that we have these tests in front of us this moment. We just need to listen to the science a bit more.

WebMD Health News

Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser for the pandemic response, Washington, DC.

Michael Mina, PhD, assistant professor, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Cambridge, MA.

White House COVID Response Team Press briefing, Feb. 5, 2021.

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Article: Government Seeking More Rapid COVID-19 Tests - WebMD

Faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences will present a webinar for the Meredith community about vaccine science and COVID-19.

Presenters will be Assistant Professor Carolina Perez-Heydrich, Professor Jason Andrus, and Professor Karthik Aghoram. They will explain the role of vaccines in combating COVID-19, immune responses against coronaviruses, and the development of mRNA vaccines. The presenterswill also discuss the benefits and risks associated with vaccination.

The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Kelsieanne Schmidt, 21, a public health and biology major. Meredith Director of Student Health Services Mary Johnson and Director of Human Resources Pam Galloway will also participate in the panel discussion along with Perez-Heydrich, Andrus, and Aghoram.

There will be two opportunities to participate in the COVID-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts webinar.

Covid-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts Session 1Tuesday, February 16 at 5:30 p.m.Register in advance for this webinar

Covid-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts Session 2Friday, February 19 at 10 a.m.Register in advance for this webinar

COVID-19 Vaccines: Get the Facts is open to Meredith students, faculty/staff, and alumnae.

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Meredith Webinar to Share Facts about the COVID-19 Vaccine - Meredith College News

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of February 5, 2021, there have been 1,970,429 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 123,641 total cases and 2,100 total deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 60-year old male from Mason County, an 83-year old male from Wood County, a 77-year old male from Raleigh County, a 71-year old female from Ohio County, a 92-year old female from Harrison County, a 24-year old male from Berkeley County, a 49-year old male from Ohio County, a 59-year old female from Harrison County, a 72-year old male from Cabell County, an 89-year old male from Berkeley County, a 94-year old female from Hancock County, a 71-year old female from Ritchie County, a 73-year old male from Hardy County, an 88-year old female from Mercer County, a 66-year old male from Mason County, a 79-year old male from Raleigh County, a 79-year old female from Mingo County, an 86-year old female from Putnam County, an 86-year old female from Putnam County, and a 71-year old female from Grant County.

As this pandemic continues, it doesnt get any easier to report the deaths of our residents, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. Our sincere condolences are extended to these families.

CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (1,138), Berkeley (9,127), Boone (1,473), Braxton (752), Brooke (1,932), Cabell (7,256), Calhoun (215), Clay (360), Doddridge (421), Fayette (2,468), Gilmer (658), Grant (1,010), Greenbrier (2,301), Hampshire (1,421), Hancock (2,521), Hardy (1,234), Harrison (4,570), Jackson (1,591), Jefferson (3,394), Kanawha (11,311), Lewis (894), Lincoln (1,147), Logan (2,514), Marion (3,455), Marshall (2,874), Mason (1,700), McDowell (1,285), Mercer (3,977), Mineral (2,521), Mingo (1,976), Monongalia (7,262), Monroe (899), Morgan (881), Nicholas (1,080), Ohio (3,438), Pendleton (595), Pleasants (777), Pocahontas (564), Preston (2,452), Putnam (3,925), Raleigh (4,283), Randolph (2,252), Ritchie (573), Roane (472), Summers (681), Taylor (1,036), Tucker (475), Tyler (585), Upshur (1,551), Wayne (2,447), Webster (271), Wetzel (1,023), Wirt (331), Wood (6,643), Wyoming (1,649).

Delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from the local health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state border to be tested.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 2-5-2021 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources