As residents of nursing homes were cut off from their families, Kayla Montoro worked throughout the pandemic to keep at bay what had become its own pandemic of loneliness by coordinating events and volunteers to engage isolated seniors.
Despite that, amid a crisis of staffing shortages in the health care industry that has resulted in a debilitating reduction in care for the elderly, Montoro was terminated from her hospice company in New Jersey in February for not being vaccinated, despite her supervisor previously giving her a positive annual review.
