@Cornettoninja
It's very reasonable if you have norovirus or the flu to avoid visiting an elderly person in a nursing home, or for that matter going anywhere you don't have to
I’m seeing a disconnect between these statements…
That is in no way comparable to telling people they cannot have visitors, or go out, for six months, or even three months. Even if it is to "protect others"
It only works if you don’t think covid is actually as much of a concern to this group as norovirus or flu?
Largely restrictions are in place, in nursing homes certainly, to protect residents, not others. The frequency of this happening will depend on the circulation in the wider community, when one resident has covid symptomatically its impossible to ignore it.
Essentially this is one of the last groups to Come out of the pandemic and we’re crossing fingers that circulation in the community drops drastically so it isn’t an ongoing issue and becomes something that is encountered as often as norovirus or flu.
The rest of the country may have made a conscious decision that we’re happy living with covid but there’s still sections of society where that’s essentially a death wish and not a freedom anyone with a duty of care can facilitate.
I have some personal stake in this, my df is currently eol with heart failure and other diagnoses and a DNR in place and resident in a nursing home meaning my face to face contact with has been and continues to affected by covid restrictions. He’s had it twice, once he was completely asymptomatic and once he was miserably ill but not enough to be any closer to death. It’s beyond shit but I don’t know if he could comprehend what the decision to opt out of restrictions actually might mean, he’s making his peace with dying but everyone’s focussed on that being a good death not one where he’s surrounded by people in full on PPE and experiencing unnecessary pain and fear. Truthfully there’s very little that can be offered to this group even in terms of palliative care, no one is under any illusion that antivirals or interventions will even be offered. Those with responsibility for their care shouldn’t be asked to not do what their job is, caring for and protecting their clients.
No, there is no disconnect and I am honestly not sure why you think there is.
If you are actively ill with something more serious like a flu, it may be best not to visit someone vulnerable. Certainly you should ask them, in any case. If they live in a place like a senior's center they may choose to be more careful than they would in their own home, and everyone understands that.
This is quite different than telling adult people that they are not allowed to have any visitors, or telling them they cannot leave their institutional facilities, for fear they may come in contact with an illness from out in the world.
If someone told you, in your own home, that you were not allowed to leave or have guests, in case you might spread illness, that would be considered some kind of coercive control.
Older people still have all the normal rights of other adults. Being cared for in a facility does not mean that they are now sub-human people who can have others dictate their movements.
We have had seniors restricted in their facilities now for two years of covid. In some of these places, people's average stay is 18 months, pre-covid. Not because they get better and move out, but because they die. They have spent the last years of their lives locked in, and died relatively alone, in order to protect them from dying from covid.
I really don't understand how people think that is ok, or how it is ok to tell people in their home - because it is their home - that they can't go out or see their loved ones. If there are people who want complete isolation there needs to be other arrangements for them - there should be no question of them inflicting that on others.