LeadingAge, an association representing nursing homes, continued its criticism of the Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, after a public hearing by the White House's Coronavirus Task Force—its first in more than two months.

Industry publication McKnight's Long-Term Care News reported that LeadingAge said it is "outrageous nursing homes and older Americans have not been [a] task force priority."

"[Forty percent] of all COVID fatalities have been nursing home residents or care workers," LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan said in a June 26 statement. "If 40 percent of the Coronavirus Task Force work isn't about nursing homes, they're doing something wrong."

The statement followed efforts by Vice President Mike Pence and task force members to cite positive accomplishments during the global health crisis.

"The Vice President's effort to paint a false portrait of the pandemic at [Friday]'s briefing does not erase the inadequate and patchwork federal response to this ongoing national tragedy," Sloan said. U.S. deaths reported from COVID-19 have exceeded 126,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eight out of 10 deaths have been in people 65 and older.

"We heard nothing about the needs of older adults—other than an out-of-touch suggestion that older people ask their grandchildren to shop for them," Sloan said.

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