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Victim's daughter questions nursing home staff vaxx

Cumberland Times-News - 11/8/2021

Nov. 6—CUMBERLAND — While it's too late to protect her mother, Joyce Murray hopes a federal requirement for nursing home workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 will help keep vulnerable residents of such facilities from needlessly suffering.

The virus didn't kill her mom, but it caused her isolation, loneliness and confusion that "certainly contributed to her death," she said.

Murray, a Cumberland resident, had many good things to say about the care and treatment her mother received for most of her seven years at Mountain City Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Frostburg.

"The activities program was just amazing" and hands-on staff members "were wonderful," she said.

"It's a very hard job and (the workers) don't get the salary or the respect that they deserve," Murray said.

Staff members found creative ways to work around barriers aimed to prevent COVID-19.

They facilitated video chats, outdoor visits and allowed residents to play Bingo, which was very popular, from wheelchairs in their room doorways, Murray said.

"The staff would call numbers up and down the hall," she said.

But Murray can't understand why health care workers would be allowed to reject a vaccine "in a horrible pandemic" and jeopardize their patients.

"The only way that the virus could get in there was through the staff. No one else was allowed in," Murray said of a time period last year when her mom lived at Mountain City.

Some of the staff members had jobs at other facilities.

"So they were then exposed to more people who potentially carried the virus," she said.

Although most if not all of the center's residents at that time were vaccinated against COVID-19, staff members that tested positive for the virus caused changes to the facility that included lockdowns.

For residents like her mother, Doris Rathell, who at 99 years old was healthy but had cognitive impairment, that meant a feeling of loss, depression and failure to thrive.

"I was there so frequently and then instantly cut off," Murray said.

After her mother lost weight, Murray cared for Rathell in her home with the help of hospice workers in November 2020.

"She died Dec. 17," Murray said.

"(Residents in nursing homes) have no control over their own lives and for them, no visitation is devastating," she said and added that their care also comes with a very high cost.

"My mom paid over $80,000 a year," Murray said.

As recently as last month, the center was again on lockdown, Murray said and added she doesn't know how many of the facility's staff have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

"I am just so angry that the vaccination rate is not high enough to prevent lockdown," she said. "Why is this still happening?"

Murray worked at Johns Hopkins medical institutions for 27 years in the cardiac department's administration unit where she became familiar with clinical trials.

"We all realized the necessity of getting a flu shot," she said. "Nobody balked at it."

She understands the hesitancy some folks feel over "how quickly" COVID-19 vaccines were developed.

However, evidence shows that COVID-19 vaccines provide protection against the disease that overwhelmingly outweigh side effects, Murray said.

In the public eye, COVID-19 vaccines "turned from public health to politics," she said.

"There has to be some common sense applied to this whole thing," Murray said.

Families are forced to put their "absolute trust" in nursing homes to care for their loved ones, she said.

"Everyone should have been vaccinated when it became available," Murray said.

A phone message left by the Cumberland Times-News for Mountain City Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing officials was not returned Friday.

'Not yet imposed'

According to Maryland Department of Health protocols that became effective Sept. 1, all nursing facility staff members are required to have their first or single dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

As of Monday, data for eight Allegany County and four Garrett County skilled nursing facilities were listed on the Maryland Department of Aging's "vaccination efforts" dashboard.

Mountain City Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing was not included.

A disclosure on the dashboard stated "the displayed data is being self reported by each Skilled Nursing Facility" and added that facilities that did not submit information "have been excluded from overall calculations."

The Maryland Department of Health on Monday released its weekly "bottom 10 skilled nursing facilities in Maryland ranked by staff vaccination rates."

Local facilities on the list included Dennett Road Manor at 53%, Cumberland Healthcare Center at 55%, and Sterling Care at Frostburg Village at 69%.

"Facilities are required to self report certain information weekly or daily," MDH stated via press release.

"Nursing facilities that fail to comply with vaccination protocols or do not adequately report their vaccination data are subject to fines, civil penalties, and enforcement actions," the release stated.

As of Friday, across Maryland, MDH "has not yet imposed any state civil money penalties on nursing homes related to their staff vaccination rates," MDH Deputy Director for Media Relations Andy Owen said via email. "MDH has imposed civil money penalties for failure to comply with mandated reporting."

'Boldest move yet'

Tens of millions of Americans who work at companies with 100 or more employees will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4 or get tested for the virus weekly under government rules issued Thursday.

The new requirements are the Biden administration's boldest move yet to persuade reluctant Americans to finally get a vaccine that has been widely available for months — or face financial consequences, the Associated Press reported. If successful, administration officials believe it will go a long way toward ending a pandemic that has killed more than 750,000 Americans.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations will force the companies to require that unvaccinated workers test negative for COVID-19 at least once a week and wear a mask while in the workplace.

OSHA left open the possibility of expanding the requirement to smaller businesses. It asked for public comment on whether employers with fewer than 100 employees could handle vaccination or testing programs, the AP reported.

ACPS COVID-19 cases

Allegany County Public Schools on Friday reported that three staff members and 36 students tested positive for COVID-19 from Oct. 29 to Nov. 4.

During that time, no staff members, and 95 students were identified as a close contact to a positive person.

None of the system's schools were identified as having a "school wide COVID-19 outbreak," ACPS Public Information Officer Mia Perlozzo Cross said via press release.

"Washington Middle School and Westmar Middle School each had one cohort outbreak," she said.

State, local cases

The Maryland Department of Health on Friday reported 868 new COVID-19 cases, 17 additional deaths and 22 fewer hospitalizations.

Maryland's three westernmost counties topped the state's COVID-19 seven-day moving average case rate per 100,000 people at 70.41, with Washington County at 32.06, and Allegany County at 25.56.

Garrett County also had the state's highest daily COVID-19 case rate — and the only jurisdiction to reach double digits — at 16.81%. Allegany County's rate was 5.53%, Washington County's was 7.78% and the statewide daily rate was 2.92%.

As of Thursday, COVID-19 claimed two more lives and brought the total deaths in Allegany County to 255, the Allegany County Health Department reported via press release.

Vaccines, testing, available

ACHD offers Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines at the Allegany County Fairgrounds, including first, second and booster doses.

Clinics are posted as they are scheduled at health.maryland.gov/allegany and on the health department's Facebook page.

Drive-thru COVID testing is offered at the fairgrounds from 2 to 7 p.m. Mondays and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays.

Teresa McMinn is the Digital Editor for the Cumberland Times-News. She can be reached at 304-639-2371 or tmcminn@times-news.com.

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