We ensure quality care through
Interim Management, Skilled Monitoring, and Reinvention
Greetings!

We turn first to The New York Times “The State of the Virus” for April 27, 2021, which offers the following:

  • The country’s case numbers are starting to drop again after a month of stagnation.
  • Outbreaks are subsiding in the Upper Midwest. Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois are all reporting drops in new cases.
  • The pace of vaccination has slowed somewhat in recent days.
  • Reports of new cases are increasing rapidly in Oregon, though the state’s recent infection rate is not yet among the country’s worst.
  • Officials in New Jersey removed more than 9,000 cases on Monday, which caused an artificially large decline on the national case curve.


Before the rest of the world, we turn to Michigan, home of our Midwest office, where Huffington Post reports that “Michigan became national hotspot for Covid-19 due to variants and lack of vigilance. Michigan recorded a highest-in-the-nation 91,000 new Covid-19 cases over the last two weeks. That is more cases than California and Texas combined.” As to California, in our LA office we are saying "nosedives are bad for pilots and gymnasts, yet great when it comes to Covid Statistics." Apologies to the Los Angeles Times, which reports “Los Angeles County has one foot in the most lenient tier of the state’s Covid-19 reopening system, a momentous achievement for a region that was once so ravaged by the Coronavirus that it was considered the epicenter of the pandemic in California." The story does a great job of explaining a complex data collection effort that now shows “the proportion of those tests coming back positive has nosedived, reaching a seven-day average of 1.2 percent as of Tuesday. During the darkest days of the fall-and-winter surge, the weekly statewide positivity rate approached 15 percent.”




Vox has a great six part series that “explores the successes – and setbacks – in six nations as they fought Covid-19.” We link to two of the six – Germany and the U.K.; we encourage you to go to the lead site to explore those two as well as Vietnam, South Korea, Senegal, and dropping on April 29, the U.S. You can also go to Vox’s  "The Weeds" podcast and listen to an introduction and summary podcast on the series

And the good news straight from the CDC, illustrated in their “Choosing Safer Activities” post on April 27.

Dr. Vin Gupta and Dr. Leana Wen visited "Hell & High Water" with John Heilemann. These are my favorite doctors who are on the wards and in the policy-practice shaping rooms and they discuss “the Biden administration’s response to the pandemic and whether its success in exceeding its vaccination goals portends victory in the fight against Covid.” We also link you to Dr. Wen’s recent Washington Post column. As further encouragement, I sent this link to our inner circle of practitioners and pod producers and have got back from this discerning crowd instant rave reviews.

Our final section is our now weekly yet to be formally named or branded “Long-term care’s one-step-forward-two-step-back-path.” We start with the Pittsburgh Tribune’s reporting on White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stating that “Pandemic 'exposed what a problem we have on our hands' in U.S. nursing.” We then conclude with Skilled Nursing News’ recent reporting onWhy SNF-at-home programs could provide a path forward for traditional nursing home operators.” This is a return to what has recently been and will continue to be our reporting on home and community health as a key stop on the long term care path. From a cul de sac of fully vaccinated adults about to have their first outdoor, maskless dinner party, across the U.S. and the world this is Revitalize for April 29, 2021:
Revitalize: The week in health-care news you need
Follows India numbers: In Covid's grip, India gasps for air: If there is an apocalypse, this has to be one. In India, ambulances are being crammed with the dead on their way to crematoria and burial grounds. Funeral pyres glowing 24/7 are a constant reminder of the staggering death toll.

India’s uncounted Covid-19 deaths. Rukmini S, a data journalist in Chennai, speaks about the coronavirus cases and death toll in India, and why unofficial statistics suggest that the true numbers are likely far greater than reported.

Vox
Exploring the successes — and setbacks — in six nations as they fought Covid-19. Before last March, the United States was considered better prepared than any country in the world to contain an infectious disease outbreak. Then came the novel coronavirus. The US response was slow, disorganized, and ineffective: The richest nation on Earth endured the most cases and deaths anywhere in the world, and it fared poorly even when adjusting for population.

Germany contained Covid-19. Politics brought it back. Germany was returning to normal last summer. Then Covid-19 surged.

How the U.K. found the first effective Covid-19 treatment – and saved a million lives. The U.K. is not a pandemic success story. But its massive Covid-19 trials program is.

Choosing safer activities.

New variants and lack of vigilance turned Michigan into national hotspot for Covid-19. Michigan recorded a highest-in-the-nation 91,000 new COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks.
In which John Heilemann talks with Dr. Vin Gupta and Dr. Leana Wen, two public health rising stars who have emerged as influential and indispensable voices on Covid-19 in the past year. Heilemann, Gupta, and Wen discuss the Biden administration’s response to the pandemic and whether its success in exceeding its vaccination goals portends victory in the fight against Covid; the controversies over the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines in America and Europe, respectively; the factors behind vaccine hesitancy and what measures might be taken to overcome it; and restarting the economy and why vaccine passports may be part of the solution.

The Covid-19 vaccines are an extraordinary success story. The media should tell it that way.
 
Biden spokeswoman: Pandemic 'exposed what a problem we have on our hands' in U.S. nursing homes.

Why SNF-at-home programs could provide a path forward for traditional nursing home operators. Even before the pandemic, executives at onehome saw opportunity in developing a robust rehab program that could provide a skilled nursing facility level of care at home. The Miramar, Fla.-based home health provider and convener partners primarily with managed Medicare insurers, with limited traditional fee-for-service Medicare or Medicaid business lines; instead, onehome opts for risk-sharing
Jerry Seelig, CEO
LA Office: 310-841-2549
Fax: 310-841-2842