When COVID Hit: America’s Nursing Home Nightmare
We report on how an elder care system already in crisis imploded under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States, nursing homes became ground zero.
By November, more than 60,000 nursing home residents had died of COVID-19, accounting for roughly a quarter of all fatalities nationwide.
Yet the nursing home industry had already struggled with chronic problems before the pandemic.
From allegations of systematic understaffing to toothless government oversight, Fault Lines examines what made residents and workers so vulnerable.
In When COVID Hit: America’s Nursing Home Nightmare, we report from California, one of the states hit hardest by the coronavirus.
Fault Lines meets relatives who accuse nursing homes of neglect – and asks if some facilities put profit before patients.