LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Glad assisted living residents, staff among first to get vaccine
Wicked Local
To the Editor:
As the director of one of Canton’s assisted living communities, I was thrilled to hear the recent news that the CDC has recommended that both residents and staff of assisted living communities be included in the first group to receive the coronavirus vaccine. I can speak for my entire community when I say we all very much look forward to the physical protection it will afford our residents.
We know that access to the vaccine will be limited for some subprioritized groups, including the elderly population of our area who are living at home alone. While they wait, this group continues to be at greater risk than the seniors living in our assisted living community when it comes to mental health. For the elderly living alone one of the worst impacts of Covid has been the isolation and loneliness. There has been more than a decade of research showing prolonged loneliness