HAS COVID-19 UNLEASHED A CARE HOME "SOFT EUTHANASIA" HOLOCAUST?

Official data on the numbers of people affected by COVID-19 is not available in many countries, and that which is available varies from place to place. Also it is often unreliable. However, a number of studies have started to show some disturbing patterns. 

Three epidemiological studies in the United States have shown that as many as half of people with COVID-19 infections in care homes were asymptomatic (or pre-symptomatic) at the time of testing, while data from five European countries suggests that care home residents accounted for between 42% and 57% of all deaths related to COVID-19.

A report titled "Mortality associated with COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes: early international evidence" by Adelina Comas-Herrera and Joseba Zalakain has gathered information on care home deaths in Europe, revealing that they are truly the epicenter of this outbreak -- or are they?

In the report the authors point to several factors that lead to the spread of the virus:

But there is also the question of just how deadly Covid-19 on its own is, a question which the report does not address. 

Yes, large numbers of old people in care homes are apparently dying from it -- and many more will probably die. But are there deaths directly from Covid-19 or are they simply being attributed to Covid-19 for "political reasons" and because putting "Covid-19" on the death certificate is the easiest way to avoid awkward questions being asked about deaths in care homes?

In normal times care homes are widely suspected of operating a system of "soft euthanasia," although how they go about it is open to question.

A New York Times article from 20 years ago -- an era when free speech was more common -- painted a disturbing picture of what goes on regarding frail elderly people in hospitals and care homes:

...nowadays many, if not most, Americans die because someone -- doctors, family members or they themselves -- has decided that it is time for them to go.

What might be called managed deaths, as distinct from suicides, are now the norm in the United States, doctors say. The American Hospital Association says that about 70 percent of the deaths in hospitals happen after a decision has been made to withhold treatment. Other patients die when the medication they are taking to ease their pain depresses, then stops, their breathing.

There is less information on the deaths that occur in nursing homes and in private homes. But doctors say they often discharge patients from a hospital with the implicit understanding that they are sending them home to die, with a morphine drip for pain or without the ministrations of what they would call overzealous doctors at a hospital who might start antibiotics to quell a fever or drugs to stabilize a fluttering heart.

''It's called passive euthanasia,'' said Dr. Norman Fost, director of the Program in Medical Ethics at the University of Wisconsin. ''You can ask who's involved and is it really consensual, but there is no question that these are planned deaths. We know who is dying. Patients aren't just found dead in their beds.''

The big advantage of care homes is similar to that of Las Vegas, according to its famous tourist slogan -- "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."  

Yes, a great deal of freedom is employed in care homes to deal with the chronically ill and infirm, from simple neglect to the use of the dreaded pillow -- and few questions are asked.

The advent of Covid-19 opens up a world of possibilities to the purveyors of such "managed death."

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