IMPACT Collaboratory co-principal investigator Vincent Mor, PhD and colleagues authored an opinion piece on June 25 in the Washington Post describing how research studies have shown that the key issue in managing infection rates of the virus within nursing homes is the rate of infection in the surrounding community.

Mor  and his colleagues David C. Grabowski, professor of health-care policy at Harvard Medical School and  R. Tamara Konetzka is a professor of health services research at the University of Chicago shared that all three had  independently analyzed what determines whether a nursing home will see a coronavirus outbreak. All three research teams found that community infection rates where the nursing home was located was most strongly associated with high infection rates within the facilities.

“No care facility, no matter how excellent, can keep covid-19 away if it’s widespread in the areas where staff members live and work. To protect our most vulnerable citizens, we have to protect everyone,” said the authors in the article.

Read the full opinion piece in the Washington Post at this link.