COLUMBIA – When Lori Popejoy and Amy Vogelsmeier worked as registered nurses early in their careers, they saw firsthand how quickly respiratory infections, such as the common flu, could spread in nursing homes. “Outbreaks of respiratory infections are notoriously hard to control in places like nursing homes because you typically have enclosed spaces where many elderly people are close together,” Popejoy, an associate professor in the MU Sinclair School of Nursing, said. “While a global pandemic of this magnitude with COVID-19 has been rare, infectious outbreaks in nursing homes do occur from time to time. So, it is important to help guide these facilities in managing infectious diseases, so they are better prepared for the next outbreak.” To help assess how more than 500 Missouri nursing homes have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, Popejoy and Vogelsmeier, now research faculty members at the University of Missouri, received a four-yea...