A NEW AGEISM? FALLOUT FROM THE PANDEMIC

Ageism and the decline narrative of aging were around well before the pandemic started, but for some Americans, COVID-19 has spurred a greater sense of a zero-sum game between younger and older generations. This has been reflected on social media with the concept of boomer remover and frustration that young people are being unnecessarily restricted to protect older populations.

On July 15, 2020, the Longevity Project, in collaboration with the Stanford Center on Longevity, held a virtual panel discussion on “A New Ageism? Fallout from the Pandemic” to explore the public and media response to the pandemic and what it means for the perception of older Americans in civil society. The conversation included Richard Eisenberg, managing editor of Next Avenue; Paul Irving, chairman of the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging; and Louise Aronson, a geriatrician and professor of medicine at the UCSF Division of Geriatrics and author of Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life, a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

The panelists along with the moderator, Ken Stern, Chair of the Longevity Project, discussed how society has been responding to the most vulnerable population during the coronavirus pandemic and what that means going forward.

VIDEO

Click here for highlights of the discussion from richard eisenberg

FURTHER READING

Written by Panelists:

• New England Journal of Medicine: Age, Complexity and Crisis: A Prescription for Progress in Pandemic (Louise Aronson)

• New York Times: For Older People, Despair, as Well as Covid-19, Is Costing Lives (Louise Aronson)

• New York Times: Covid Kills Only Old People. Only? (Louise Aronson)

• Next Avenue: Will COVID-19 Make the Decline Narrative of Aging Worse? (Richard Eisenberg)

• Next Avenue: The Pandemic Paradox for Older Workers (Richard Eisenberg)

• TED: Embracing Elderhood as a Stage of Life (Louise Aronson)

• The Atlantic: Ageism is Making the Pandemic Worse (Louise Aronson)

• Vox: Coronavirus Reveals Just How Little Compassion We Have for Older People (Louise Aronson)

Recommended by Panelists:

• Next Avenue: A Pandemic Lockdown Just for Older People? No! (Chris Farrell)