My sis caught Covid from an unmasked worker at the retirement community where she works.

or pay up

Mask mandate?

Unless they don't take any federal money, which would mean there's no assisted living center that takes Medicare (and possibly Medicaid). If they do have an assisted living center, then they should definitely fall under the federal mandates for vaccinations and masks for employees. And in that case, the owners and management could be held liable for anyone who got infected.

when the outbreak occurred. My sister and I had already, in the previous 18 months since he had moved in, been continuously shocked by the poor quality of the entire staff. By fall of 2020 the director was still sending newsletters blaming the governor of California for the fact that they were being required to make masks mandatory for staff, etc. No family was allowed into that facility. Dad finally tested positive in November. He died in February 2021. I’m certain Covid was a factor. I’m so glad we’ll never to have to deal with that place again.

of these places. Uber rich, and squeezing every dime of profits out of the facility that they can.

I was at one visiting a friend....The gal taking care of my friend had a very prominent RN on her name tag.
I asked her where she went to nursing school to get her RN, just to make conversation.
she said: "Oh, I'm not an RN, this place just uses the Letters RN to designate a class of employees."

Cute.

I could write paragraphs about what else I observed, especially at night when I visited my friend.....
I talked to his wife, and she pulled him out of there that same day, and I helped her take my friend home where we both could take care of him.........

Which I’m sure is a whole nother kettle of fishes.

would be FOR masking, Vaccinations, etc.........

At least in general. It’s a luxury village. I won’t claim to know what the rules are but I know there are employees who are lax, at least from the stories. And I don’t think that’s unusual.

But "the Catholics" aren't a monolith, and bishops in red areas tend to be red.

And vice versa.

Francis has given numerous directives to get vaccinated. Most bishops world-wide has supported them. Conservative bishops in America not as much.

If they didn’t pay the floor caregivers low wages - who do all the work - and cut their profit margin how great it would be for all concerned. As it is they have to use un vaxxed employees b’cause there are no willing replacements in the wings. I lost my dad to negligence of one such bottom of the pay grade worker in March 2021. There were some good ones but not vaxxed. Drove me nuts. The elderly are so vulnerable and being in an upscale place lace is zero guarantee (as Oliver points out).

They visit every day, sometimes for hours, to make sure everything's being done right.

They need the bodies that badly. I don't know the exact science behind it, but I think we'd all agree at some point you have to weigh between bringing no one in, and bringing in some sick but fully vaccinated people.

Thankfully it sounds like OP's sister is vaccinated so she should be fine.

My takeaway from this: it doesn't hurt to call someone out at your office if they seem sick. "Hey, you sound kind like you might be sick. Did you consider asking for a day off?" They might not have even realized it. You could probably also raise the issue with a manager.

Now they are very short handed and I don’t know how they’re dealing with it. I know my sister is supposed to go back to work Wednesday, less than a week after first developing symptoms.

I recognize the dilemma but it’s not been handled well.

for work that is often unpleasant. No one wants to change diapers, whether they are baby's or adults'.

give a damn. My uncle died of covid in a nursing home.

Depending on the home, the staff that deal with patients daily might be low information, poorly trained, and poorly paid.

For me when dad died in March it was like if I couldn’t be there watching and advocating he and my mom would just fall thru the cracks. And then they worked hard to keep me (vaxxed) from being allowed in to spend time (tho the home’s caregiving staff were unvaxxed) on the grounds of cdc guidelines “no visitors.” So your parents need you but they lock you out all the while neglecting them and putting them in danger of breakthrough infections.

typically attract those with other options since it is very physically and emotionally taxing work for less pay than some fast food joints.

Society places precious little on the value of women or their labor, and our elders pay the price in this case.

I'm so sorry to hear of your uncle. We have seven residents on our COVID ward right now and by God they will get the best care possible or I will die trying to make sure they get it.

set by management and supervisors. I have known some dedicated angels working in nursing homes for low pay. I have also known some coldhearted, indifferent staff who were there for a paycheck, low as it was, and got annoyed when patient needs interrupted their gossip sessions and magazine articles.

is infuriating. And dangerous. The whole concept of the common good is out the window, apparently.

Hope your sister recovers soon.

Weird.

When I say it’s huge I mean it’s HUGE. The gate doesn’t have a booth; it has a building where several people vet visitors, repair people, deliveries, etc.

Knowing how many of my neighbors and community are trying to kill me is almost more than I can bear.

“I swear, I had no idea people—not the obviously impaired but business owners, professionals, etc.—we’re so damned stupid til this virus hit. The depression over the collective state of humankind is almost as bad as the plague itself.”

You have no idea how many people I've known in my 15+ years of working that they rather go to work while "sick" instead of wasting/using their precious "sick days". And that is an issue across the board with democrats, independent and republicans alike. I think, in general, democrats are better with COVID because we take it more seriously. But my aunt who works at a hospital, who basically pushed my dad into getting vaccinated and boosted (even though he keeps saying Omicron is no big deal and is weaker than flu) and was a big fan for masking and vaccines. She was sick with flu like symptoms during the Christmas time and she still chose to go to the hospital to work and then came to our home for a Christmas dinner. We got lucky as none of us came down with COVID so she might really just had a flu but I was so mad she came to our house sick.

But there is also another side that takes "sick days" as their "personal days". My dad used sick days as his annual leave days so he would go to work sick so he can save his sick days for vacations. I've never done that and would have unused "sick days" because I am not sick. My dad never have any sick days left every year because he counted them as extra annual leave days.

Seems the “personal days” are a newer phenomena. At least I’d never worked anywhere that had them. I didn’t ever work at a place that had paid sick days till I was in my 30s. It’s great that so many places provide sick leave nowadays but there are always people who abuse it. Seems like most places it’s “use or lose” which can be counter productive. The last place I worked allowed you to roll sick leave balances into the next year and accumulations could be added to your time in service at retirement. Policies like that really help the situation.

Some employers (way too many) regard coming to work despite being sick as not only praiseworthy but pretty much expected. In those workplaces, people who come to work sick are regarded as harder workers, more dedicated, etc.

Then there are the employers that give employees one bucket of paid time off that is used for everything (illness, vacation, anything else that comes up), which incentivizes people to work through illness in order to have more pto available for vacation.

And let us not forget the legions of poorly paid workers who get NO paid time off of any kind and come to work sick because they can't afford to lose a day's pay.

The way this country treats its workers (in many ways, not just this) is a travesty.

They refuse to codify and treat paid time off as a necessity. And they encourage companies to get creative with making people self-employed or contractor so the company don't have to pay retirement, sick leave, and other benefits that comes with a job.

Thanks for pointing that out.

American culture revolves a deeply embedded attitude that the less fortunate deserve scorn.

Or, if I discovered that she was sick after she entered, I would have made her leave. Not out of line to stand your ground during a pandemic.

no matter how old I get. The parents and the elders are the one making decisions.

So the only other alternative is for you to leave, or stay and take the risk. Sounds like leaving would mean being ostracized and possibly disowned by the relatives.

I know that I would have just left. But not everyone would feel that they could make that choice.

I used to have a verbally abusive father-in-law. The family tolerated his tyranny in silence and I was expected to do the same. I was young, in my 20s, and was brought up to respect elders and parental figures. I also wanted to avoid creating trouble between my husband and his family, or between his family and me. But one day in the middle of a large family dinner he started in on me verbally and I had had enough. I knew my husband would not speak up on my behalf. Nobody spoke up to that guy. I did not respond to him, did not excuse myself from the table, did not say a word. I just silently stood up and walked out the door.

I was a couple blocks away when my husband caught up with me in the car. He told me to get in, return to dinner, and apologize to everyone. I refused and kept walking. My husband and I lived on the other side of town, a very long walk for me, but I was angry enough to do it.

When my husband realized that I would not give in, he said that he would drive me home. He did, and then called to tell his family that I was not feeling well so he was staying home with me. I refused to go to the next couple of family dinners. My husband's relatives pleaded with me to stop making an issue of it and said I could not do that indefinitely, but I said that I would until he apologized. After several weeks, he did. Following that, I went to their house only for holidays.

Eventually I divorced the husband who turned out to be as abusive as his father. I have no reluctance since then to refuse to tolerate behavior that is harmful to me.

To be honest, I prepared myself since the beginning of COVID that I would eventually get it because of my family connections. I am relatively young and in good health. I am vaccinated and boosted so I have a very low risk even if/when I eventually get it. So it's easier for me to stay quiet than making a big deal out of it.

And that dinner was productive otherwise because my aunt got my kinda anti-vax dad to get boosted. I say kinda because while he buys and says all the stupid republican anti-vax stance (personal choice, Omicron is no worst than flu, etc), he still got his 2 shots previously and boosted after that Christmas dinner.

It's the economic system we live under, Free Market Capitalism. Workers are counted as expenses, or capital outlays that need to be cut, not humans.

We, as a country, seem to let the capitalism run too crazy and placed too high by the right wing. We seem to ignore the human decency part. If I go to work really sick in other countries, the manager would tell me to go home because a) they care that I am sick b) they care that I shouldn't spread the gem/virus to other healthy people. That part seem to be missing in US and is pretty unique in US work culture.

In my opinion.

They would talk bad about my virus spreading especially in this COVID time. They would treat me as a human bioweapon if I cough. A lot of other countries (especially Asian countries) care about people spreading COVID. And they treat it seriously unlike here in the US.

living community, and I had zero tolerance for anyone there who was unmasked. We all have a responsibility to protect folks in that situation. She should have told him to mask up. Too late after it happens.

He had symptoms, was waiting for a test result, and did not wear a mask. As I said the desire to sue is the manifestation of my anger at the facility, not realistic I know.

from posting what happened all over social media and then, offline, telling everyone you know about it. Could be doing a service to a lot of people who have relatives there as patients or who are considering placing relatives there.

My sister could suffer repercussions, as could I. Not necessarily horrible ones but she would be appalled and could lose her job—unofficially of course—and it would be a hardship. Plus, she’d never sue. She’s just not like that, sometimes to her detriment. But I respect it.

to your sister, but you're right that it could harm her.

I would steer clear of maskholes as much as possible.

without gaps. Cloths or surgical masks don't work that well in preventing infection.

In real world situations there is little we can do about the anti-maskers, or those who don't wear their masks properly.

Only properly fitting, authentic and new/clean N95's, KN95's and KF94's can protect the wearer from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Some also suggest wearing protective glasses as there is a possibility that the virus can infect via the eyes.

The idea behind the cloth masks was that 'my mask protects you, and your mask protects me' but that only works if everyone wears it and wears it properly. Cloth masks do work well to stop the exhalation of viral droplets (as the droplets are much bigger and wetter as they are exhaled) but poorly at stopping the inhalation of viral droplets which are at that point dry and aerosolized and much smaller - which only the better masks can stop.

And stay the hell way from us if sick. She is lucky she got antibodies, they are in short supply.

They're greedy and couldn't give a damn.

All they know is there's another well-to-do elderly person waiting to pay up for the next apartment.

throughout history. And I agree it goes with being graady, and I would add arrogant.

But you don't have to know all of human history to grasp how stupid and arrogant they are.

All you need to do is go through the history of the United States in the 20th and 21st (so far) centuries and set side be side tax provision, regulatory provisions, and corparate earnings (adjusted for inflation). It's not all that hard to see that businessed overall are must successful under Democratic leadership. And that is also true of themiddle class - it is stringest uneder Democratic leadership as well.But, you know, stupidity - and arrogance especially - people think they know better.

Arrogance is it’s own special kind of stupid.

But they stash all those profits somewhere and wait for a republican president so the top 1% can legally take those profits without paying taxes/their fair share.

but what the hay.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142854241

I'm very sorry to hear about your sister.

“Elderly, immune compromised, under-5 — we productive citizens can get along without you.”

Here, every worker in a senior care facility must be vaxxed and boosted, test negative regularly, and wear masks. Visitors must also be vaxxed and masked at least for indoor visits.

Even that is not foolproof; Mom got COVID along with others in her facility despite all these precautions from an asymptomatic caregiver.

But to knowingly allow someone to work unmasked, especially with symptoms, is insane. If this turns out to be a bad case of COVID, sue the bastards.

That said, with Omnicron rampant, even the vulnerable seniors in Mom's facility, all vaxxed, have all recovered so far, so chances are it won't be too bad.

They had an outbreak early on and seemed stringent about things, but I’ve heard many stories of employees not masking. I know the culture and don’t doubt it a bit but it’s insanely inconsistent.

Why isn't the company (i.e., the owner of the nursing facility) liable if it allowed a sick, contagious worker to infect other workers and possibly residents of the nursing home? The Covid-infected worker should have been isolated, and removed immediately. Instead he stayed there and infected others who were trying to be careful.

The company has a responsibility to keep sick workers home, away from the healthy ones. When it fails to do that, it should be held liable, as in suing them for damages. I don't understand why more victims aren't doing this.

What was puzzling— a person who is symptomatic, takes a test, but not asked to isolate until test results are available? No backup?
I’m afraid we will see more of this!

A fool is just a fool. But the facility? Come ON. Multiple people had to look at that and say “Okay, back to work. We’ll let you know.” And others had to put up with the lack of mask (my sister included apparently but there’s learned helplessness there).

This Very Personal info I normally wouldn't share but to present what Proper Procedures are being done in some places....

they deeply encourage(d) vaxs, boosting, masking, distancing. They check up on people to see if they're doing any of this, etc. On current rare visits to their office they have all proper precautions, and will give you a mask if you arrive e out one. (I'm always masked 👍 )

nolabear I'm so sorry your sister got sick from some careless, selfish person! Horrible!

She will be in my prayers

This is so wrong!