Retirement homes are places of risk of the corona crisis. The people there are isolated from visitors - ARD experts discuss the meaning and nonsense of such measures.
- The corona virus * poses a great danger to old people's homes
- Frank Plasberg therefore asked "Are old people's homes becoming a corona trap?"
- The invited experts rate the situation as very dangerous *
Cologne - "The virus and care - Are old people's homes becoming a corona trap?" This is the question Frank Plasberg asks his guests at the beginning of the ARD program "Hart but fair" - and thus hits a very sore point in the corona crisis . It is predominantly older people who belong to the coronavirus risk group * . The average age of Germans who die as a result of the coronavirus is currently 82.
These ARD statistics do not come as a big surprise to guests on Monday evening (April 6) - they are all experts in the field of healthcare or are themselves affected. This is probably why the guests' judgment is very sober.
"Hard but fair": Frank Plasberg's guests worry about the situation of the old people's homes
Proposed measures *, such as that of Jens Spahn , asking older people to "stay at home for months *", the senior physician, Prof. Dr. Johannes Pantel , for unthinkable. "Social isolation has negative effects," warned the expert. A weakened immune system increases the risk of infection . Despair can also lead to an increasing risk of suicide, says Pantel. The internist Prof. Dr. Gerd Fätkenheuer confirms this statement. A strategy to isolate only older people and let younger people run free could lead to a “catastrophe”.
Isolate old people and let everyone else run free. The #Corona crisis cannot be combated in this way, says infectiologist Prof. Dr. Gerd Fätkenheuer (@UKKoeln) at #hartaberfair @DasErste. "This strategy would lead to disaster." # Coronavirusdeutschland pic.twitter.com/ZIl4680MZO
- hard but fair (@hartaberfair) April 6, 2020The geriatrician Pantel complained to presenter Plasberg about the current rhetoric on the subject. "Now to constantly use this rhetoric, the old against the young, runs the risk that the generations will also be emotionally pitted against each other," appeals the professor.
"Hard but fair": Especially in NRW, many residents of the home succumbed to the consequences of the corona virus
The imported ARD statistics support the experts' assessments that the situation in the homes is delicate: in the particularly affected federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia , a particularly large number of older people died from the consequences of the corona virus. Out of 297 victims, 118 died in care facilities. 573 nurses were infected themselves.
"Protective clothing is missing in nursing homes," complains the elderly nurse Silke Behrendt-Stannies at #hartaberfair @DasErste. "There is a big problem to balance between the health of those in need of care and that of the staff."
The topic: "Are old people's homes becoming a # corona trap?" pic.twitter.com/WmP27cRIwc
The emergency in the old people's homes is therefore an enormous burden for the employees. With such a high number of infected nurses, moderator Frank Plasberg asks the elderly nurse Silke Behrendt-Stannies about a possible scenario. "If we lose care workers, it's a drama that can no longer be caught," she admits. In addition, it is extremely difficult to weigh up “the health of those in need of care and that of the staff”.
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