COLUMN: Reynolds, Iowa agencies failing seniors in COVID protection

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Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa officials lied to you this past week.

They told you during a press conference that they were doing “everything we can” to fight the virus and obtain personal protective equipment (PPE) for Iowa’s besieged health care workers, especially those at long-term care spaces.
But this simply isn’t true. Much like how Donald Trump tried to rewrite his inadequate response to COVID-19, so is Reynolds trying to rewrite hers. Here’s the truth she’s not telling you:

- In March of 2020, eight months ago, all Pottawattamie County nursing homes came together to ask for the tools to prevent outbreaks. We asked for all the things Reynolds and company boasted last week of providing now, and more: rapid testing, more PPE, dedicated facilities for COVID care, and the use of Critical Access Hospital beds, which are federally-funded hospital beds intended to serve rural areas. All of these measures would have helped reduce the redundancy of dedicated staff, and therefore the spread of the condition to healthy residents.

- Gov. Reynolds and two other state agencies refused our requests. So did the Pottawattamie County Health Department. They ALL refused to address the very specific needs of Iowa nursing facilities.

- Now, we see staff shortages in every facility in the Pottawattamie County area, including hospitals and assisted living spaces. We see facilities now reaching outbreak status that are nonetheless still ONLY checking residents and staff a few times each week, rather than daily. Potentially infected staff are allowed to work with residents without knowing their actual status between testings, due to the lack of available tests.

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