Even as 60,000 nursing home and long-term care residents died from Covid in the first five months of the pandemic, antiviral treatments for the virus only reached one in five nursing home residents.
These grim statistics plagued the sector despite medical guidelines calling for the prompt administering of antiviral treatments to patients that were at high risk of severe illness, hospitalization or death, according to a report published Saturday in the New York Times.
The overall response of the industry to the pandemic has been poor, subsequent studies have shown, with a lack of antiviral medications being just one factor, according to the report.
Familiar names in the skilled nursing industry – David Grabowski, health care policy researcher at Harvard Medical School and Brian McGarry, health economist at the University of Rochester – both gave the nursing home industry a “D grade” for the sector’s overall pandemic performance.
McGarry and Grabowski, among other researchers, in June reported on the failure to deliver antiviral medications to skilled nursing facilities. About 40% of the nation’s 15,000 nursing homes said they didn’t use antiviral medications at all, according to the JAMA Network report.
The study found only a quarter of infected residents received antiviral medication, even during a time when forerunner Paxlovid was available; the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for the drug in December 2021.
Prior to Paxlovid, monoclonal antibodies administered intravenously were the main antiviral option, the NYT reported. And, frail patients oftentimes had to leave the nursing home in order to receive the treatment.
Paxlovid, on the other hand, was a pill residents could take over five days. Studies found the mediation drastically improved the prognosis for patients 65 and older, those that are sick and frail, according to the article.
The NYT compared lackluster antiviral administration to the relatively positive Covid vaccine rollout, with residents and staff receiving their first vaccinations between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021.
In early 2022, 87% of residents and 83% of employees were vaccinated, the NYT reported.
However, McGarry said the industry also “dropped the ball” on Covid vaccine boosters. As of August, only 26% of staff are up-to-date on Covid boosters, while 62% of residents per facility have received all available Covid vaccinations, including boosters.
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Harvard Medical School, JAMA Network Open, New York Times, The New York Times, University of Rochester
