My parents are in a nursing home in CA and have been under lockdown since about May. We haven't been allowed to visit them in person and this morning, my dad passed away.
He was coming up on 93 and had some health issues, but was stubborn and refused to be limited in what he could do. So the lockdown was really hard on him and us...we used to take them out every weekend to go on rides through the country, to go shopping for basics, etc. It was the highlight of their week and it was a chance to spend a lot of time together. When the virus first hit, we were ok with the extreme measures since our parents (and the other residents of the nursing home) were vulnerable.
Weeks turned into months and the restrictions increased. You could see the mental and physical decline when we were given a "window visit" (they were rolled up to a glass door and we called them on the phone from the other side) and we pushed for more visits. The nursing home refused, saying they would be shut down by Gov. Newsom if they did what we were asking for. So a 5 minute window visit was all we could have once a month.
I get that you can't expose old folks to a virus, but there has to be a balance between the needs of the elderly for safety and their need for family interactions. If I could, I'd break Newsom's neck right now for having deprived us of the last 6 months of my dad's life. The lockdown is about 98.3% political and the rest something else, and I'll never forget, or forgive, the (D) party for doing this to us. There was and is no need to turn the population into prisoners.
