Brighter Days Ahead: Covid-19 Vaccine

In our senior care world, 2021 started with exciting developments regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. We feel that even just having a vaccine available brings a great promise that this pandemic will soon be put behind us. 

Last year we went through a very tough year and everything is still so fresh in our hearts and our minds. We had to ensure that all our residents and staff remain healthy and are not exposed to the disease. It was very tough to accomplish that but we did it. We are happy to report that at no point did we ever have any concerns that we were exposed to Covid-19. We did what we had to and we respected the rules and the protocols. And, we continue to remain vigilant even with the news that the Covid-19 vaccine is available and our residents and staff will soon receive the first dose.

We applaud the CDC for recommending to prioritize our industry, and we continue to advocate among community officials for our residents to receive the vaccine as quickly and efficiently as possible. We are making progress.

Witnessing our residents, team members and their families roll up their sleeves, knowing that they were taking a proactive step toward protecting themselves and others, was incredible. We want to thank you all for allowing us to keep everybody safe and continuing to do so. 

We’re really excited about the ongoing interest from team members, residents, and their families to get vaccinated. We are encouraged by their level of engagement as we work hard to make available information from the CDC, FDA, and other federal public health authorities.

At this stage, we continue to strongly encourage anybody to consider participating in the vaccine program.

We are actively exploring opportunities to mandate the vaccine following its approval by the FDA.

We believe that the COVID-19 vaccine is a key component of the entire world’s ability to move beyond this pandemic.

We are continuously learning more about the vaccine. We are including those learnings into our evidence-based infection control program. We are continuing to practice enhanced measures to stop the spread of the virus.

Importantly, even once our team members and residents are vaccinated, mask-wearing, social distancing, and other enhanced protocols won’t be going anywhere for the foreseeable future, as our society must first reach herd immunity.

We’ll stay the course and continue to take steps to limit virus transmission until health authorities advise it is no longer necessary.

So, although we don’t believe big changes are coming this year, at least not until the entire population becomes vaccinated, we believe that this year brings a renewed sense of hope and energy to us all.

We feel it every day and it’s our honor to serve you and we wish to thank you for taking the next step with us in our journey.