Data: 42 Percent of US Coronavirus Deaths Are Linked to Nursing Homes, Where Less Than One Percent of Americans Live

The heartbreaking statistic relayed in my headline is not, as some have suggested, an attempt to diminish the tragedy of the tens of thousands of Americans who have died as a result of lethal Coronavirus outbreaks at nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Every human life has value and dignity, and losing so many aging Americans to this virulent disease is gut-wrenching. The point is not that older lives lost do not matter. The point is that as we make difficult public policy decisions about public health and reopening the economy, extraordinary efforts must be undertaken to mitigate the deadly impact of isolated hotspots that arise as the virus sweeps through communities that are exclusively populated by the most vulnerable members of our society. These numbers, released earlier this week, are staggering and important: