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Percentage of nursing home residents up to date on vaccines by Biden and Trump vote — Image: Benjy Renton for *Inside Medicine.* Source: CMS.

Since the start of Covid-19, nursing homes have experienced terrible loses. Covid-19 vaccines and boosters have made a big difference, saving many lives. While I advocate for Covid-19 vaccination for every age group (starting at age 6 months and older), if there’s one group where vaccination and boosting are absolutely essential, it’s nursing home residents. In addition, healthcare professionals who work in nursing homes carry a responsibility to keep those they care for safe. They too should be vaccinated and stay up-to-date on boosters (to see if you’re due for a booster, check the CDC guidelines).

Data snapshot:

Nursing home residents: There have been 1.3 million documented cases of Covid-19 in US nursing homes since March of 2020, and 160,078 deaths—a case fatality rate of 12%. One in eight nursing home residents who have had a documented Covid-19 illness have died because of it. Currently, only 43% of nursing home residents nationwide are up-to-date on their Covid-19 vaccinations/boosters (see the graph above). That’s incredibly low, given the stakes. This number needs to be much closer to 100% if we expect to get Covid-19 deaths closer to zero.

It is often said that one can judge a society by how it treats the most vulnerable. We are not doing well. There’s Red state and Blue state divide that can’t be ignored. Most of the states with the lowest rates of vaccine are Red (with Nevada and Arizona—two swing states, being at the bottom).

Nursing home employees: Among nursing home healthcare workers, there have been 1.4 million documented Covid-19 cases nationwide, and 2,796 deaths—a case fatality rate of 0.2%. One in five-hundred healthcare workers in nursing homes who have had a documented Covid-19 illness have died because of it. (That unto itself is a shocking figure.) Currently, only 22% of nursing home healthcare workers nationwide are up-to-date on their Covid-19 vaccinations/boosters. That means that nursing home staffers are likely to bring Covid-19 to the vulnerable people they are otherwise caring for. Here, the Red state-Blue state divide is even clearer.

Percentage of nursing home staff up to date on vaccines by Biden and Trump vote — Image: Benjy Renton for *Inside Medicine*. Source: CMS.

Below is a scatter plot, showing the up-to-date status in nursing homes for each US state. The horizontal axis shows the percentage of nursing home residents who are up-to-date on their Covid-19 vaccines, while the vertical axis shows the percentage of nursing home staff who are up-to-date. Places with higher rates of resident and staffers being up-to-date are closer to the upper right of the graph. Places in the lower left are the danger zones.

scatter plot of above — Image: Benjy Renton for *Inside Medicine.* Source: CMS.

Frankly, even the “good places” are not doing that well here. The White House recently announced a push to boost the most at-risk people. That’s the right move.

If I were considering placing a loved one in a nursing home, I would ask the facility to provide data on what percentage of their residents and staffers are up-to-date on their Covid-19 vaccinations/boosters. If the numbers were on the lower end of the spectrum, I would not send someone I care about to that facility.

Inside Medicine

Data snapshot: Which states's nursing homes…