Quick morning phone call for the upcoming 2020 Democratic National Convention. So glad to hear public safety from both the 2020 DNC and 2020 RNC in attendance this morning. Hope to see all of you in July.
But back to your regularly scheduled program…#Coronavirus. As we continue to respond, our metrics are starting to improve. With this, I am starting to see a trend from the local news as they are focusing in on the congregate living…aka nursing home facilities.
As the External Affairs Officer, I believe that breaking the chart down and having clear cases of residents vs Long Term Care Facilities (LTCF) might help the news media in separation to better tell their narrative of the congregate living.
Media in our area seems to be focused on the proximity of residents at nursing home facilities and their separation. Sounds about right as a county in the State of Washington was the first to see exponential growth of cases and deaths. My guess is they want to see/forecast the same issue in our area.
Conversely, nursing homes are scrambling to manage their current staff as well as accommodate the increase in distance between their populations. Remember, the majority of those in nursing homes have compromised immunity and frequently go to the hospital for injury/illness. Lots of challenges and every LTCF is going to have a different response and hazard level. No two places will be similar.
For every reporter that has called me for information, facts, interviews, press conferences, etc…..I have managed to eek in a few personal questions for them.
- How are you doing/doing OK?
- Like me, are you tired about this Coronavirus thing too?
- You safe? Protected with proper PPE? Do you have a mask?
Despite some real unfriendly and impatient reporters, I am happy to be able to provide some breath of relief to their hectic schedules. Some of them aren’t working their normal shifts, which I am sure it makes them uncomfortable. Additionally, there are some reporters who are operating outside their scope, which is very apparent to me.
Regardless of your role and agency, I am happy to talk to all of these reporters and pitch them stories too. Like always, I am keeping a log of who I talked to and hope to check back in with all of them once this thing is over.
Whether you are a international star, national news feature reporter, or just the local newsie, lets all try to be nice to each other because we are far from being done with this story. I project this issues to continue on through 2021…so now is the time to be real nice to each other. Please.
Reporting live from the JIC…
Where is @rusnivek? 