This image from April 2020 is dedicated to all the lives lost thus far due to COVID-19. Since the beginning of the pandemic, our elderly have always constituted (perhaps intuitively) a great majority of all the most serious cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Healthcare institutions at every level were asked to adopt and enforce policies that were murky at best. Long term care facilities were among these institutions of course, and found themselves under particular strain and scrutiny. As human contact grew more infrequent and social events grew more distant, the critical importance of bedside manner rose dramatically. “No Visitors” is one of many moments in time since COVID-19 began where a parking lot stands empty at an old folks home. The image asks questions about mortality and why so many of the most precious members of our society were made to spend their final days with either zero or severely reduced physical contact with their loved ones.
