Prognosis
Care for Dying With Human Touch an Enduring Casualty of Pandemic
Low paid and unglamorous in the best of times, hospice care jobs go begging as workers find safer employment elsewhere
Source: Getty Images
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Never has there been a greater need for hospice care than during the deadly pandemic that has killed more than half a million Americans.
But Covid-19 has disrupted almost every aspect of comforting the terminally ill at the end. Even as vaccinations roll out across the country, the system remains under unprecedented strain. As infection rates and hospitalizations plateau and, in some regions, rise after months of improvements, pressures on hospice care are unlikely to ease anytime soon.