Education
Dr. Mike Wasserman has achieved a sort of celebrity status over the past year and a half. His passion for what he saw as the tragedy of how COVID 19 ravaged nursing homes gnawed at his insides and his Twitter finger. From then until now he has not stopped speaking out about the inequality and injustices in treatment and care of nursing home residents and healthcare workers. This has gained him national recognition. One of the biggest concerns is that major TV news outlets for the most part have moved on from covering nursing homes. Articles continue to appear in print media from time to time and thought leaders and advocacy groups continue to push for legislative changes that lead to reform. Nevertheless it is slow going and certainly not getting the national spotlight and attention it did in the initial stages of the virus. Now we have moved from nursing homes as hotbeds of COVID19 to conversations about the vaccine and the Delta variant. Dr. Wasserman is equally passionate about the impact of vaccine hesitancy amongst healthcare workers and the Delta variant, both of which may contribute to a resurgence of the virus in the over 15,000 U.S. nursing homes, once again affecting our vulnerable older population. Dr. Wasserman can be an inspiration to us all. If we all take a stand, speak out in our own way, in places wherever people will listen, there may be hope of change in the care and treatment of our vulnerable older adults sooner than later.