With vaccine in short supply, Virginia assisted-living facility markets a ‘Vaccination Staycation’
“Begin your ‘staycation’ by February 6 to participate in our COVID-19 vaccination clinics!” the advert learn.
But the provide raised some eyebrows amongst native officers. Jeremy Lasich, a spokesman for the Fairfax County Health Department, stated the promotion “does raise some concerns as both a promotional strategy and from a safety perspective,” however declined to elaborate.
Joani Latimer, Virginia’s long-term care ombudsman, stated she had not beforehand heard of this sort of promotion however deliberate to look into it.
State Del. Kenneth R. Plum (D-Fairfax), whose district contains Tall Oaks, stated he anxious the advert would give seniors the misunderstanding that they need to pay to obtain a coronavirus vaccine when, beneath county and state pointers, they’re already eligible to obtain the doses, freed from cost.
“I don’t want older people to think the way to get ahead on the schedule for getting their vaccination is to go sign yourself up for an expensive facility,” he stated in a telephone interview. “It has the smackings of buying the vaccine when you don’t have to do that.”
Seniors age 65 and older are already eligible to obtain the vaccine free in Fairfax County and all through Virginia, however as a result of provide is so restricted, many have needed to wait in lengthy strains and navigate glitchy, cumbersome web sites and jammed telephone strains, solely to be instructed the few appointments accessible had been already booked.
The “Vaccination Staycation” advert on the Tall Oaks Facebook web page options a photograph of an older grownup receiving a shot in the arm.
“Enjoy the Tall Oaks lifestyle and take a break from winter worries with a short-term respite stay,” the advert learn, itemizing facilities corresponding to chef-prepared meals and 24-hour entry to nurses.
A 30-second video selling the “staycation” on Tall Oaks’s Facebook web page stated Tall Oaks residents had been among the many first in the county to obtain vaccinations. Residents of long-term care amenities had been prioritized in the rollout of the vaccines due to the impact of the pandemic on that group. Neither the advert nor the video may very well be discovered on Tall Oaks’s Facebook web page by Friday night time.
George Winters, government director of Tall Oaks, stated the promotion is geared toward “those people who are kind of on the fence or held off on moving their loved one” to an assisted-living facility due to the pandemic.
Some of the primary and most severe outbreaks of the coronavirus occurred in assisted-living and skilled-nursing amenities, the place residents, workers and practitioners come into shut contact, serving to to unfold the virus.
There are limits on who’s eligible for the “staycation.”
Winters stated potential residents should apply to reside at Tall Oaks, whose inhabitants are primarily in their mid- to late 80s, and meet the necessities for assisted dwelling as regulated by the Department of Social Services, together with a well being evaluation and historical past, in addition to a bodily carried out by its doctor.
Winters stated final week that just one individual — a girl who had pulled her mom out of the facility final yr over fears concerning the pandemic — had up to now responded to the advert.
