Editorial: Concern for Ohio nursing home vaccine report

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A recent editorial by the Marietta Times:

If you have loved ones being cared for in nursing homes in Ohio, a report from the Ohio Health Care Association is cause for concern. Only a little more than 55% of workers in those nursing homes are vaccinated against COVID-19; and there is real concern that some of the remaining 45% will quit rather than get the vaccine before the federally imposed Jan. 4 deadline for those who receive federal money.

Buckeye State nursing homes could go from one health hazard to another, as they transition from employing those who have so little regard for the residents for whom they are meant to be caring that they remain unvaccinated against a virus that has proven particularly deadly to older populations, to an even greater staffing shortage than that which they now face.

“Long term care providers are completely strapped for staff but they are not in a position where they can say it will take an hour to get your pizza or we are going to close down the dining room or we are not going to have certain things on the shelves,” Pete Van Runkle, of the Ohio Health Care Association, told another media outlet.

Much like a dishonest and particularly cheese-headed professional football player, the folks working in our state’s nursing homes without being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 know full well they are putting at risk not only their co-workers and the residents who depend on them, but their own families.

There’s nothing political about this folks. You are not getting ahead of some vast conspiracy theory or displaying your patriotism by remaining one of the reasons this monster is still killing thousands of Americans every day.

Take a look at the people around you — even if you do not work in a nursing home — aren’t they, your family and, oh yeah, yourself, worth doing the right thing?

— Marietta Times, Nov. 9

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