Florida led the nation in the rate of Covid-19 nursing-home deaths during a four-week period that ended Sept. 19, according to a report published Thursday by the senior-advocacy group AARP. The report, which relies on federal data, said Florida nursing homes reported 289 resident deaths from Covid-19 during the period.
The Florida deaths represented nearly 14 percent of 2,131 COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes across the nation. “With more than 11,000 lives lost in Florida’s long-term care system since the start of the pandemic, we can only hope that the recent decreases in new cases and hospitalizations could mean that the darkest days of this global public health crisis are behind us,” AARP Florida State Director Jeff Johnson said in a prepared statement. Florida saw a surge in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations in July and August as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus swept across the state.
But the state has had a steady decline in hospitalizations in September and early October. The AARP report also showed that Florida’s vaccination rate among nursing-home workers and residents continued to lag compared to other states. However, the report said Florida had an uptick in the rate of staff vaccinations, which increased four percentage points, to 53 percent, from the rate reported the previous month.
The state’s rate of staff vaccinations trailed the national average of 67 percent, and Florida ranked second-to-last in the nation, with only Louisiana lower at 52.8 percent. The AARP also reported that 12 percent, or roughly 85, of Florida’s nearly 700 nursing homes, had “met the industry standard and vaccinated at least 75 percent of their staff.” AARP releases periodic Covid-19 reports about all states, using data that nursing homes submit to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The information is compiled by the AARP Public Policy Institute and the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Ohio.
–News Service of Florida
Timothy Patrick Welch says
May god bless and comfort their families.
Florida does have a higher percentage of elderly, and as such a better comparison with other states would be the percentage of people in nursing homes that have succumb this terrible disease. This article seems to take advantage of a families loss for political gain, sad and sadder.
Be Safe says
Dude, the title of the article is literally:“Florida Led The Nation In Nursing Home Deaths Between August And September.”
Sorry, not sorry, this article in not in alignment with the false narrative you gorge on from Fox, and Russian troll farms. Try and do better. Be safe.
Timothy Patrick Welch says
The data is presented in away that distorts the facts, more elderly people have died in Florida because there are more elderly people in Florida, not because the rate of death is higher.
Ray W. says
If Florida has 21.6 million citizens right now and 21% of them are senior citizens, then roughly 4.5 million Floridians are senior citizens. If there are roughly 50 million senior citizens in the United States, then Florida’s senior citizens make up roughly 9% of the country’s senior citizen population. Feel free to look up the numbers for yourselves. Mine came from an article published on May 21, 2021, based on the latest census estimates.
So, yes, it very well may be true that Florida, with 14% of the nation’s senior citizen deaths from Covid-19, ranks first in the country. If true, the reasons can be many, such as an unusually high number of senior citizens with co-morbidities, or an unusually low vaccination rate among staffers at senior citizen living facilities of all kinds, or even an unusually high percentage of Florida’s senior citizens residing in group facilities instead of living independently, or a combination of factors.
Sometimes, the authors of statistics-based articles may just be better informed than Timothy Patrick Welch. Sometimes, their statistics-based analysis is right on point. I do see a pattern developing in Timothy Patrick Welch’s posts. He may be attempting to undermine any statistics-based analysis of any type. If so, why this is so remains unclear right now, but people really need to be cautious about placing any weight on anything he posts, as his motives may be malicious (malice is defined by the courts as ill will or hatred directed toward the person or property of another). It is true that skepticism can be a constructive attitude towards questioning any statistics-based analysis, and it is true that statistics can be manipulated, but malicious skepticism is another story and Timothy Patrick Welch may have a hidden agenda. Timothy Patrick Welch may be the type of person our founding fathers feared, which is why they placed checks and balances on every governmental power that can be delegated to an official.
Timothy Patrick Welch says
When data manipulated, then sensationalized to support an agenda. It should be questioned.
I can only suspect that when you take into account the larger number of elderly in Florida the data does not show correlation with vaccination rates. That’s why it has to be presented this way.
Get vaccinated, live free, and love you enemy:)
Trailer Bob says
With Florida being a huge state which attracts many seniors, there are expectations that more people of age will live AND die there than in most other states.