Question

why did so many older people die from COVID-19?...what did the treatment of elders reveal about the American health care and social service systems?...how did politics get involved for elders and for other age groups?...what do we know about how mental health issues were handled for the elder population?...is there evidence of health or economic disparities across generations in the response to COVID-19?

Answer 1

Ans.- So many older people die from the covid-19 because there immunity weak Older people are not as good at reacting to microorganisms .

Our immune systems have two sets of defenses against viruses and other pathogens: a first-line army of cells, called leukocytes, that attack invading microbes within minutes to hours, and a second-line force of precisely targeted antibodies and T cells that surge to the battle front as late as several days after.

With advancing age, the body has fewer T cells, which produce virus-fighting chemicals. By puberty, the thymus is producing tenfold fewer T cells than it did in childhood, by age 40 or 50, there is another tenfold drop.

That leaves the body depleted of T cells that have not yet been programmed to defend against a specific microbe. Fewer such “naïve T cells” means fewer able to be deployed against a never-before-seen microbe.

Antibodies are made by B cells, and their decline is less precipitous than the fall-off in T cells. But old B cells, like old factories, can’t produce as much of their product — antibodies — as when they were new. Specifically, they have lower levels of the molecule that rearranges their genome so as to produce never-before-seen antibodies to a never-before-seen virus.

As if old age weren’t cruel enough, it brings one more change to the immune system: It slows down how quickly natural killer cells and other first responders hand off the defense to activated T cells and B cells. “This initial response remains in overdrive,” The core of that response is a fusillade of inflammatory molecules called cytokines.

That fusillade attacks the lungs and causes acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a common cause of Covid-19 deaths.

Treatment of covid - 19 :-

There is no specific treatment for disease caused by a novel coronavirus. However, many of the symptoms can be treated and therefore treatment based on the patient's clinical condition.

Prevention :-

- Maintenance personnel hygiene.

- avoid to touch mouth nose eyes etc.

- avoid to shake hand .

- maintain social distancing.

- avoid to eat outting.

- use a nepkin or tissue paper if you suffer from sneezing or coughs, avoid hand .

Risk :-

• live with someone who has contracted the virus
• are providing home care for someone who has contracted the virus
• have an intimate partner who has contracted the virus.
• serious heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, or cardiomyopathies.
• kidney disease.
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
• obesity, which occurs in people with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher.
• sickle cell disease.
• a weakened immune system from a solid organ transplant.
• type 2 diabetes.

The most common mental and neurological disorders in this age group are dementia and depression, which affect approximately 5% and 7% of the world's older population.

• Depression. Depression is a type of mood disorder that ranks as the most pervasive mental health concern among older adults.
• Anxiety Disorders.
• Bipolar Disorders.
• Eating Disorders.

The neurobiological changes associated with getting older, prescribed medication for other conditions and genetic susceptibility (which increases with age) are also factors. There are a number of rarer mental health problems that affect older people too, including delirium, anxiety and late-onset schizophrenia.

Despite what people may believe, anxiety and depression aren't a natural part of aging and no one has to accept them. In fact, mood and anxiety disorders become less common as people age. But detection rates are also lower among older adults. They're less likely to seek assistance for mental health issues.

MUSCLES – We tend to experience a steady reduction in physical strength due to a loss of muscle tissue, with the most rapid decline occurring after age 50. ... SKIN – Age spots and wrinkles become noticeable around age 40 or 50 and skin becomes less elastic.

Evidence of health or economic disparities across generations in the response to COVID-19 are the impact of COVID-19 on health inequalities will not just be in terms of virus-related infection and mortality, but also in terms of the health consequences of the policy responses undertaken in most countries. While traditional public health surveillance measures of contact tracing and individual quarantine were successfully pursued by some countries (most notably by South Korea and Germany) as a way of tackling the virus in the early stages, most other countries failed to do so, and governments worldwide were eventually forced to implement mass quarantine measures—in the form of lockdowns. These state-imposed restrictions—usually requiring the government to take on emergency powers—have been implemented to varying levels of severity, but all have in common a significant increase in social isolation and confinement within the home and immediate neighbourhood. The aims of these unprecedented measures are to increase social and physical distancing and thereby reduce the effective reproduction number of the virus to less than 1. For example, individuals were only allowed to leave the home for one of four reasons (shopping for basic necessities, exercise, medical needs, travelling for work purposes). Following Wuhan province in China, most of the lockdowns have been implemented for 8 to 12 weeks.

The immediate pathways through which the COVID-19 emergency lockdowns are likely to have unequal health impacts are multiple—ranging from unequal experiences of lockdown (eg, due to job and income loss, overcrowding, urbanity, access to green space, key worker roles), how the lockdown itself is shaping the social determinants of health (eg, reduced access to healthcare services for non-COVID-19 reasons as the system is overwhelmed by the pandemic) and inequalities in the immediate health impacts of the lockdown (eg, in mental health and gender-based violence).

The world economy has been severely impacted by COVID-19—with almost daily record stock market falls, oil prices have crashed and there are record levels of unemployment.Economists fear that the economic impact will be far greater than the financial crisis of 2007/2008, and they say that it is likely to be worse in depth than the Great Depression.