COVID-19 Disparities in Nursing Homes.

ABSTRACT

Cases of COVID-19, the coronavirus that has spread throughout the world, affect and kill the poor, racial minorities, and the elderly disproportionately. The toll to the elders of our society is extreme and does not seem to relent over time. This work examines the statistics of the cases and deaths at the early onset of the disease in nursing homes. It reveals the age disparities seen in the COVID-19 pandemic by using data from nursing homes across the states, and particularly in Maryland, as a source to illustrate the effect on the elderly living in group-like settings. It presents an overview of the disease in the early months as it ravaged across the states, indicating that the older generation was a lot more at risk than the general population. It is necessary to illustrate these disparities even as the numbers of infections and deaths are not static.