Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 5-28-20 E-edition

Thursday, May 28, 2020 | A4 | Mid Valley TiMes Editorial & Opinions
Serving the Readers of the Reedley Exponent, Dimuba Sentinel and Sanger Herald.
A Mid Valley Publishing Newspaper
Founded March 26, 1891, in a two-story building on the corner of 11th and F streets, by A.S. Jones
Fred Hall — Publisher
In my OPINION Turning a natural pandemic
into a power grab
As we rapidly approach mid-year, isitjustmeordoesthisyear—witha dearth of holidays and special events which we are allowed to celebrate — seem to be passing into history ex- traordinarily fast?
Thoughts from the inside on the value of nursing home personnel
Rick Curiel — Sanger Editor Jon Earnest — Reedley Editor Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
By Dick Sheppard
A few weeks after I retired as editor of The Sanger Her- ald I almost retired from life. In mid-November of last year I flatlined (my heart stopped beating) at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno and defibril- lator paddles had to be used to get it restarted. The experi- ence left me pretty messed up.
Since then, I have been in a couple of other rehab facili- ties before I wound up at the Dycora skilled care facility in Reedley. It was called the Golden Living Center until a few years ago when Dycora bought it. "Dycora," by the way, is a combination of a cou- ple of Greek words meaning "strength" and "hope," Julianne Williams told me recently. Maybe not the best branding strategy, but a very relevant name for patients and staff.
Williams is cofounder and chief executive officer of Dy- cora Transitional Health and Living facilities, with several skilled nursing homes in the MidValley Times coverage area. She's also the adminis- trator at the Reedley facility. It's a family business. Her nephew, Nathan Williams, is assisting her until he learns how things are done in the world of Dycora skilled nurs- ing facilities. Then he will step in as full-time administrator at Reedley and Julianne will spend more time as company CEO.
Nathan's mother, Janet Wil- liams, is a nurse at the Reed- ley facility.
Confidentiality rules pre- vent me from sharing much about what it's like being in- side a "nursing home."
Things I can share: when I left St. Agnes I couldn't stand, walk with a walker or get in or out of bed by myself and af- ter being in two previous re- hab facilities I was still pretty much in the same condition when I got here. Now, I can do all those things.
What I can share are com- ments by Williams about nurs- ing homes and family small
businesses during this pan- demic that may offer a differ- ent perspective than you'll get from TV talking heads or from the experts on Facebook :
"Skilled nursing care cen- ters provide care to the most vulnerable citizens in our coun- try. Patients receiving care in this setting were placed at risk as supplies were diverted to other healthcare settings even as mandates were issued for admission of patients diag- nosed with a virus. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, my hope is that nursing homes are recognized as equal partners to hospitals in the healthcare con- tinuum. Our centers need con- sistent funding, supplies and support from our community and that includes legislators and other healthcare provid- ers. Where resources were di- rected, mitigation and contain- ment of the spread of the virus was successful."
Williams continues: "To that end, skilled nursing facilities must have priority access to rapid testing. We must be able to test our patients and their caregivers in order to get ahead of the outbreak of this deadly virus and to give us a fighting chance at stamp- ing out hot spots before they occur.
"Additionally, we need quick action to temporarily waive long training hours for Certified Nursing Assistants in California to place more hands to care for our patients and residents. Prior to to CO- VID the profession had more than 1,000 open CNA positions to meet the minimum staff- ing requirement. With illness, quarantine and family needs we need CNAs more than ever to care for elderly.
Williams concluded by saying "According to news reports, more than 16,000 CO- VID-19 deaths — about a quar- ter of the national total have been residents and staff of long-term care facilities. The federal government has allo- cated over $175 billion to help providers during this pan- demic. Unfortunately, skilled
nursing care
centers have
received only
a small frac-
tion of those
funds. We are
calling on the
Department of
Health and Hu-
man Services to allocate funds specifically for skilled nurs- ing care centers. These funds will ensure adequate staffing and funding levels to meet the needs of long-term care resi- dents and appropriately re- cruit train, retain and compen- sate our heroic caregivers."
And I can share the com- ments of my favorite Demo- cratic politician, state Sen. Me- lissa Hurtado of Sanger, who is still a politician and who chose her words carefully:
"Dick Sheppard's testimo- ny demonstrates that skilled nursing facilities are a criti- cal safely net for our most vulnerable seniors. In addition to ensuring funding for these centers, we must make sure they are prioritized for rapid testing for both caregivers as well as patients in order to bend the curve."
Hurtado added, "Coun- ties currently have emergen- cy preparedness plans that should include every person in the county regardless of age or income, but we cannot stop there. As a member of the Sen- ate Budget Committee and as a sitting committee member on the Health and Human Ser- vices Budget Committee, I will continue to work on making sure our nursing homes are included in our county emer- gency plans and have priority access to the testing and care they need."
Nursing home personnel are among the first respond- ers who should be honored for efforts to keep us safe from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dick Sheppard is editor emeritus of the Mid Valley Times and may be contacted by email at DShepherd@hot- mail.com.
Dick Sheppard
Politicians seemed to go out of
their way to make sure all our church-
es, temples and synagogues were
closed and there would be no glori-
ous celebration of Easter! Sports fans
are particularly starved for action with no spring base- ball; no opening day for baseball season; no Kentucky Derby; no NCAA basketball tournament to determine a men's and women's national champion: and no NBA playoffs which always seem to last forever. Graduating students were deprived of all the pomp and circum- stance which has always accompanied their movement into the world of adulthood.
Our nation's politicians have managed — through their politicization of a naturally-occurring phenom- enon — to turn to their use in an attempt to gain even more power. Efforts on the part of some have been made to link this catastrophe to “climate change.”
I guess that all looms rather small when one consid- ers the fact that, for the longest time, there was no toi- let tissue or water in the stores, thanks to those among us who were hoarders. Remember? It was almost as if some people thought they were going to stop making tissue or overlooking the fact that your local water com- pany or municipality pipes it directly into our homes.
Plastic water bottles, along with cell phones, social media and the internet are among some of the most despicable inventions of the 20th Century!
All of these pale in comparison to the long-lasting damage which was exacted on the economy of this great nation. Millions were left in abject despair when faced with the ramifications of being furloughed, laid off or being forced to shutter their business under the orders of some little bureaucrat. We even note, with some in- terest that the individual who has been the expert face for this entire pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, conceded that there is a limit to holding people to shelter in place. There can be dangerous side effects, not only to the psyches but the physical welfare of the people!
Maybe one of the best examples of being held in confinement for too long a period would be Joe Biden, the assumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Joe recently delivered his proclamation to a black audi- ence that “if you don't hate Donald Trump then you ain't black.” That seems to me to be a textbook example of exactly what amounts to racism.
Interestingly enough is the fact that there are ma- ny among the Democratic Party who feel he should be sheltered from any public scrutiny. That's exactly the sort of reality that leaves one to wonder where were the polls conducted by the mainstream media that continue to show Biden leading Trump by 8 to 10 points. Doesn't make any sense? You'll get no argument here. Just as with Hillary Clinton, there is a limit as to how long the media and tech companies can continue to carry the water for deeply-flawed candidates.
Biden's selection of a running mate has already turned comical and it's barely underway. It was always our un- derstanding that a vice presidential candidate should be selected using the scrutiny of best possible credentials.
Biden, himself, established what he considered the most important criteria: that candidate must be black and must be a female. Maybe I missed something. Has anyone heard any other qualifications from Mr. Biden which would further winnow the crowd?
So far we've heard three or four names which the campaign has floated — none are even a little bit ac- complished. That's important when one considers the fact that Mr. Biden stands a good shot of not completing his four years.
Fred Hall
But. As always, that's only one man's opinion.
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QUOTE
“Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.”
— Nikola Tesla (1857-1943)