Conclusion : ageing, COVID-19 and ‘new normality’

Abstract

The COVID-19 epidemic has shown the pluralism of human anxiety as it has impacted everyone regardless of race, gender, religion or age. It has equalized economies, political systems and public health care systems. It could be said that it has spread no matter what mitigation efforts were conducted. Older persons were especially affected by the frst wave. It revealed that the multimorbidity of this age group exposes them to disease and severe illness in much larger extents. The scale of susceptibility of contracting COVID-19 and the risk of death in people aged over 65 compared to other age groups was disproportionately high, as repeatedly demonstrated in the chapters of this book. The COVID-19 epidemic has shown that the older population is particularly vulnerable to the effects of the global epidemic, not only in terms of health (the scope and scale of the consequences constitute a constantly updated area of research), but also in social, economic, legal, psychological and other dimensions. Older persons have felt the impact of the epidemic in terms of diffculties accessing goods and services resulting from the lockdowns, experience of loneliness and isolation from loved ones, particularly younger generations, due to fear and uncertainty regarding the development of events, and changes in routine daily activities caused by the ban on meeting other people through religious, social, recreational, tourist and sport-related activities). At the same time, volunteer grassroots social support systems have emerged to assist older persons by going shopping, walking dogs and handling offcial matters. Public mechanisms were also created to enable safer participation in social life (e.g. special shopping hours for older persons, doctor consultations over the phone, online support services, including quick training for using new forms of technology).