Guest essay: To fix nursing homes, listen to nursing home workers 

The Sacto Politico | April 27, 2022

Just over two years ago, Californians were ordered to stay at home to halt the spread of COVID-19. Our lives haven’t been the same since. But one thing hasn’t changed—the conditions that made nursing homes more dangerous than any other place during the pandemic. The global disaster revealed but did not change this fundamental problem: nursing home residents and their safety have taken a back seat to profits. 

Nearly 10,000 residents and workers in California nursing homes died from COVID-19 and over 160,000 contracted the virus. This didn’t just happen because vulnerable elderly and disabled residents were concentrated in nursing homes. Profit-driven corporations created work conditions, dangerously low staffing levels, and living environments that functioned as dry brush and hot wind to the COVID-19 wildfire

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