Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Women lawmakers in Minnesota are in the vanguard of the democracy movement

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 3
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8
      • Voter ID laws stand between transgender people, women and the ballot box

        Barbara Rodriguez · October 14

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

A room shows a bed in a nursing home.
(Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald/Getty Images)

Health

COVID booster rates in nursing homes remain low for staff and residents, new AARP data shows

Fewer than half of residents and a quarter of staff are up-to-date on their vaccinations despite continued high rates of infection and transmission.

Sara Luterman

Caregiving reporter

Sara Luterman, The 19th

Published

2023-01-12 16:05
4:05
January 12, 2023
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Older adults, particularly those living in nursing homes, are bearing the brunt of the current winter COVID wave in the United States, but booster rates among nursing home residents and staff remain low, according to new data from AARP.

Only 47 percent of nursing home residents were fully up-to-date and had received the bivalent COVID booster in the four weeks preceding December 18, according to AARP. Less than a quarter of staff, 22 percent, are fully up-to-date on their COVID vaccinations. This is despite relatively high rates of infection and transmission. Over the same time period, one in 17 nursing home residents tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 1,100 nursing home residents died. In all, 64 percent of nursing homes had at least one resident case. COVID is the third leading cause of death for Americans over 65.

The majority of nursing home workers are women, and aging populations are overwhelmingly women. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Ari Houser is senior methods advisor for AARP’s Public Policy Institute and the lead analyst for AARP’s nursing home dashboard, which tracks COVID cases, deaths and vaccination rates among both residents and staff. He praised the Biden administration’s early push to get nursing home residents vaccinated in 2021, but said that booster efforts have been comparatively lackluster. 

“There was not an extraordinary effort to get nursing home residents vaccinated. There was a normal effort. And so, we have normal results,” Houser told The 19th. 

  • More from The 19th
    A woman sits on a bed in a dark room in a nursing home.
  • COVID continues to hit nursing homes harder, AARP data shows
  • More women are being detained as jail populations near pre-COVID levels
  • Flu, RSV and COVID are wreaking havoc — but teachers don’t feel like they can stay home when they’re sick

Houser also highlighted how uneven vaccination rates in nursing homes are between different states. Arizona has the lowest vaccination rate, with only 26 percent of residents fully up-to-date. In contrast, 95 percent of nursing home residents in Vermont and Rhode Island are boosted and up-to-date. 

While political attitudes towards vaccination have certainly had an impact, Houser pointed out that nursing homes and states that have historically had lower rates of flu vaccinations appear to be the same states struggling to get COVID boosters into arms. 

“It’s an issue that’s not new to COVID or unique to COVID. The reason the vaccination rate for the initial vaccine was so high was because an unprecedented effort was made to get them that high,” Houser said. 

Sheria Robinson-Lane is a gerontologist and assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Nursing. She stressed the need to get nursing home residents vaccinated because even mild COVID-19 infections can be catastrophic for older adults. 

“For vulnerable populations like older adults and individuals with chronic illness, individuals who are in nursing homes, the flu vaccine and the COVID vaccine are really important,” Robinson-Lane told The 19th. 

She expressed concern about the lack of information available about boosters. 

“You don’t really hear about it as much on the radio. You don’t even hear about COVID deaths the way we used to. There’s a disconnect between what’s happening. Maybe even some fatigue,” she said. 

Michigan resident Janice Will, 71, caught COVID while undergoing rehabilitation in a nursing home. Will has Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative condition that causes tremors and loss of muscle control. 

In September, she had an extended stay in the hospital for low sodium. During that time, she lost the ability to walk and to sit up in bed on her own. She was supposed to spend time in the nursing facility to work on getting that functioning back. 

Instead, two weeks into her stay, Will caught COVID. Physical, occupational and speech therapy all but stopped. She received some services in bed, and her son, Brandon Will, tried to do some exercises with her. But months later, she still has not regained the ability to walk. It is unclear if she ever will, according to her son. 

“Before [she contracted COVID] she was walking up and down the hallway and she was using the exercise bike. But now all of that progress is gone. We’re still struggling to regain that baseline, or to figure out what the new baseline is,” Brandon Will said. 

Although her case of COVID was not “severe” — Janice Will did not go back to the hospital — it was a terrifying experience. 

It’s impossible to know how exactly she contracted COVID, but both she and her son expressed frustration that her roommate’s daughter and grandchildren would come to visit unmasked. Her roommate also contracted COVID and also had to be isolated. There were no masking requirements for guests at the time Will became infected. Safety precautions were also largely reliant on self-reporting.

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

“When I checked [the facility] out there were precautions they were taking. But then actually in practice, they weren’t. They weren’t checking anybody’s vaccination status. Not the visitors. Visitors didn’t have to wear masks. There were just these little screening forms that asked if you’ve had a fever or cough in the last 14 days. It’s an honor system,” Brandon Will said. 

Janice Will described her experience with COVID isolation as haphazard at best. The only visitor she had regularly was her son. In order to see her, he had to put on full PPE – not only a face mask but also gloves, a face shield, shoe covers and a gown. 

“People only came to check on me at mealtime or when I needed to use the bathroom. It was very lonesome,” she said. 

What the Wills went through is not unique. Last month, AARP submitted a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asking the department to step up vaccination efforts and to enforce existing requirements. The letter outlines several failures, including that some nursing homes were reporting zero boosters had been administered. 

“We’ve totally abandoned the pretense of trying to [protect people] in this country. It’s like we’ve been left to fend for ourselves,” Brandon Will said.

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Help sustain what we started

Your monthly investment is critical to our sustainability as a nonprofit newsroom.

Donate Today

Become a member

Up Next

LGBTQ+

‘They’re erased’: When trans people are misgendered after death, the consequences extend beyond paper

The way people are accounted for and processed after death in regard to sex and gender remains ‘in the Dark Ages’ – often representing a loss of self that weighs heavily on the minds of trans people.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram