Anxiety, relief â and confusion â as vaccines head to Massachusettsâ hard-hit senior care sites
Some nursing home staff wary of vaccine program that starts Monday
By Kay Lazar and Robert Weisman Globe Staff,Updated December 25, 2020, 4:37 p.m.
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Belmont Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Belmont, where dozens of people have died of COVID-19.Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff/The Boston Globe
No group has suffered more in the COVID-19 pandemic than residents at long-term-care facilities, accounting for more than 60 percent of coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts. And there are ominous signs infections are surging again: Nearly three-quarters of the stateâs long-term-care facilities have at least two COVID-19 cases.
Mary Lou Galushko gives Jeanne Peters, 95, a rehab patient at The Reservoir, a nursing facility, the first COVID-19 vaccination at the nursing home Friday, Dec. 18 in West Hartford, Conn. (Stephen Dunn/AP via pool)
Anticipation. That’s what retired biology teacher Janet Brady feels about the coronavirus vaccinations expected to begin at Massachusetts long-term care facilities next week. And she says many of her neighbors at the Orchard Cove assisted living residence in Canton feel the same. We’ve all been waiting for it sort of breathlessly, she says.
For Brady, the vaccine will mean liberation from months of isolation. And she hopes it will let her spend much more and better time with her husband, Tom. He has dementia and no longer speaks, so touch is especially important.
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