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December 21, 2021

How the Grinch Stole Christmas from Nursing Home Patients Who Won't See Another One

Once again, families are being prevented from visiting loved ones in some nursing homes in Ontario - only essential workers are allowed in. Why? One of the excuses this year is that there's a shortage of rapid tests so they are unable to screen all visitors.

But why is there a shortage of rapid tests? As usual, there's more to the story than the headlines would suggest.

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1849127/maison-retraite-ottawa-visites-restreintes (English version here)

Thanks to government fear mongering, all the paranoid hypochondriacs are now lining up for rapid testing and tests are running low. For a virus that causes asymptomatic infections or very mild symptoms in all but the most vulnerable among us.

https://globalnews.ca/video/8464607/demand-for-rapid-covid-tests-soars-in-ontario

The hysteria is so enormous that there is now a burgeoning resellers' market that has sprung up online — kits are reselling anywhere between $90 and $350 dollars a pop.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/people-in-ontario-are-selling-rapid-covid-19-tests-online-for-hundreds-of-dollars-1.5714537

And the province of Ontario even sent home a box of rapid tests with every student. 5 tests per box. 2.2 million students. That's 11 million tests. For children whose risk of dying from Covid is less than their risk of dying from a cold or flu.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-sending-students-home-with-five-rapid-covid-19-antigen-tests-for-winter-break-1.5671232

Legacy media is outraged. Why? Because teachers and school staff didn't also get free boxes of rapid tests.

https://london.ctvnews.ca/everyone-in-the-school-should-have-access-to-tests-ont-parents-push-for-rapid-test-accessibility-for-teachers-1.5709145

Meanwhile, back in long-term care facilities... the median length of stay in a nursing home is 5 months from the time of admission until they die. For more than half of all nursing home residents, they are quite literally being robbed of their last Christmas with family. Zoom calls do not replace hugs. They will spend this Christmas alone. More than half of them won't live long enough to see another Christmas.

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2010/08/98172/social-support-key-nursing-home-length-stay-death

The anguish caused by isolation is horrific. "Isolation and loneliness are associated with a 50 percent increased risk of developing dementia, a 32 percent increased risk of stroke, and a nearly fourfold increased risk of death among heart failure patients, according to separate studies." Being denied access to their families is, quite literally, a matter of life and death. And it's happening all over again.

https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/health/info-2020/covid-isolation-killing-nursing-home-residents.html

The increased vulnerability and accelerated health declines caused by isolation played a big role in excess deaths over the past two years. It is a plague made invisible behind the all-consuming veil of Covid. It's not just collateral damage; the health conditions caused by isolation and loneliness are, after all, the same health conditions that increase the risk of death if someone catches Covid. So, these isolation policies are directly contributing to higher Covid death counts in addition to shorting the lives of those who die from other diseases of old age. How do you count the cost of isolation if no-one is keeping score?

There is a legitimate rationale for testing visitors to nursing homes in order to try to keep respiratory viruses out of facilities where our most vulnerable live. Nursing homes are one of the few places where it makes sense to test everyone who comes through the doors during peak cold and flu season. Covid has not changed this equation - this risk has existed in equal measure every single cold and flu season, and every public health official knows this. Yet politicians and health officials nevertheless prioritized rapid tests for school children in order to pander to fearful helicopter parents instead of giving these tests to long-term care homes. So, while the rest of society has transformed itself into a lunatic nation of hypochondriacs, the vulnerable are once again condemned to life-threatening isolation. That's the cruel gift that the government gave our most vulnerable for Christmas. 

Not even the Grinch was cruel enough to steal entire families from those facing their very last Christmas. Probably because the good folks of Whoville would have had the sense to meet the Grinch with pitchforks if he had dared to come between them and their families.

If you want to give someone the precious gift of family this Christmas, take your rapid tests and donate them to your local long-term care homes, hospitals, and nursing homes. And demand that they re-open their doors to the families of those locked up inside. It will mean the world to those trapped inside. It may even make the difference of whether they live long enough to see another Christmas.

~

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COPYRIGHT 2021 JULIUS RUECHEL

15 comments:

  1. Thank you, Julius, for giving us the gift of defending liberty and human interconnectedness. All the best for your work in 2022!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Gefen! I really appreciate all your support. May 2022 bring a new dawn after a long darkness. Warmest regards, Julius

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  2. For some people who work from home, it might be an idea to bring their loved ones back home. The price of these institutions is very here (in the US and probably in Canada too). It might be worth to have a nurse come visit instead of keeping the elderly family member isolated in a costly room

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    Replies
    1. I agree. Whenever possible, this seems like a much better solution in this mad environment. A few readers have reached out since posting the article that some long-term care homes are allowing them to take their loved ones out on daytrips as a way of getting around the restrictions, so at least in those LTC homes, management seems to be finding ways around the restrictions. Every millimeter of progress helps.

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  3. Prior to the madness that started in 2020 only people who were visibly sick would be denied entry to a nursing home. I think that citizens should be preparing a list of those, who invented the term asymptomatic infections.

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    Replies
    1. 💯 Those who invented the term are predators taking advantage of people. It's cringeworthy to the nth degree.

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  4. I have been apart from my parents for going on 2 years, it was one of the 2 times I got to see them because I moved to Texas, for the last 650 plus days I have heard my son ask when he can go see his grandpa in Ontario. He was 5 when this started, he is 7 going on 8 and his grandpa is 77 going on 78, he doesn't have many more years with his grandkids. This will not end until you finally tell the public servants to go back to serving the public!

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    Replies
    1. It breaks my heart what they are doing to families. As you say, this only ends when people are willing to say No in big numbers. I suspect we're getting there - the mood is noticeably shifting on the street.

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  5. Julius, you continue to be such a clear and compassion voice of reason. A breath of fresh air in the fog of fear. Thank you, my online friend.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Michelle - the feeling is mutual! Slowly but surely our collective efforts are turning the tide. May 2022 bring a new dawn after a long darkness!

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  6. I suppose the political view is that given the average 5 month stay in a nursing home, those affected are not going to be voting in the next Provincial election anyway. It is absolutely despicable! Will the person who made the decision be held accountable?

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  7. People of planet earth: if you spend your life trying to avoid death you are not alive.

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  8. Pretty funny that Crapitalism has the same shortages of critical items just like other authoritarian systems.
    I'm so sick and tired of every ism... And sick of mass religion too...

    Wake up people, stop following gods and ideals and be human

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  9. The VA here in the US did the same thing. Didn't even offer to test. Just decreed no visitors due to Omicron. In the meantime, they drugged the patients until they couldn't open their eyes to see a loved one anyway.

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  10. Thank you for your Lear and incisive essays. This one is no exception. We were baffled over the holidays that the care we spent long days stn with my wife’s dying father did not rapid tests us. We didn’t ask, since we weren’t vaxed and didn’t want a sudden change of policy to arise. But then this has never been about common sense, evidenced to me a year ago when I returned from the Uk with the first known Canadian with Alpha sitting two seats in front of me. Neither airline or govt bothered to think I needed to know, even if it was to set my mind at ease.

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