Older adults in the first wave of the Corona pandemic

Abstract

Since spring 2020, the Corona pandemic holds the world in its grip. Covid-19 has increased the death rate across all countries in the world with—in April 2021—almost 3 million deaths worldwide (WHO Covid-19 Dashboard). In the course of the pandemic, healthcare institutes and professionals came under extreme pressure. Older adults were hit hardest by the pandemic. Older people belong to those risk groups with the highest mortality risk of Covid-19, with exponential increase in the mortality risk. Beside age, the impact of the pandemic has been patterned according to social class, health status and migration status, affecting especially the lower social classes, migrants and most vulnerable people. During the first wave of the pandemic in spring and summer 2020, governmental infection control measures were aimed at physical and social distancing, shutting down shops, restaurants and theatres, where people have close contacts, as well as reducing movement of people within and across countries. By now, many countries have experienced a second wave of the pandemic and a second lockdown, and some even a third one. Shortage of masks has been overcome in many countries, but frequent testing and especially the speed of vaccinations remain critical issues, particularly for economically less privileged nations. In this situation, it is necessary to know how the living situations of older people have changed due to the pandemic itself, and the political measures meant to restrain its spread (Vieira et al. 2020). In light of these circumstances, the European Journal of Ageing published a call for contributions on the social, behavioural and public health consequences of the Corona pandemic in later life, with the aim to inform societal stakeholders and policy makers about empirically grounded insights that may be useful to better combat the consequences of the pandemic. Many scientists from the social and behavioural sciences submitted proposals on a wide range of topics. A selection has been made, and this special section presents six empirical studies on the first wave of the pandemic, coming from different countries across the world. The dynamic of the Corona pandemic makes it almost impossible to keep track of the newest developments, especially in respect to thorough empirical studies. The six papers selected for this special section inform us about specific consequences of the first wave of the Corona pandemic in countries hit by its outbreak in the first half of the year 2020. Perceptions of older people and ageism have been a hot topic in gerontological discourse since the onset of the pandemic. Three contributions are aimed at societal and individual images of ageing and older people. Jingjing Zhang and Xiaoting Liu have analysed the media representation of older people’s vulnerability during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. They show that media in China presented older people as passive recipients, while seeking resources from families, public institutions and governments at various levels to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that similar observations on the role of the media can be made in other countries around the world. The study carried out by Niklas Ellerich-Groppe and colleagues investigates how the concepts of intergenerational solidarity and responsibility were used in public discourses in relation with the first COVID-19 wave. Thanks to a descriptive ethical discourse analysis of selected cases from the three areas of politics, civil society and mass media, they identify prevailing normative premises, ambiguities and biases, and their underlying assumptions about older age and intergenerational relations. In their contribution, Anna Elena Kornadt and colleagues examine older adults’ perception of ageism Editorial for a special issue of the European Journal of Ageing Guest editors: Clemens Tesch-Römer and Giovanni Lamura 17 April 2021.