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Title: Challenges for the protection of older persons and their rights during the COVID-19 pandemic

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2020

Abstract: The health and economic crisis like no other in the past 100 years that has been caused by coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has thrown socioeconomic inequalities and unequal access to health and social protection services into even sharper relief. It has also posed socioeconomic challenges that expose the most vulnerable groups in the population to even more severe risks and adversities than they were already facing. One of the most vulnerable groups is older persons, whose quality of life and rights are being directly impacted by the pandemic. Scientific evidence on the evolution of the pandemic and risk factors associated with COVID-19 have shown that people of any age can contract the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, older persons have a higher probability of severe symptoms, complications and death, especially those aged 80 or over (WHO, 2020a; United Nations, 2020). In addition, studies show that pre-existing chronic or degenerative conditions are also risk factors associated with a higher probability of severe illness and death as a result of COVID-19 (WHO, 2020a), and it is well known that those comorbidities are more frequent among older persons. Hence the importance of protecting the rights of older persons during this health crisis, for which efforts must be made on two fronts. First, the right to health, which must be for all, without age-based discrimination. Second, the right to life and the right to a dignified old age until the end of one’s days. The shift in the age structure of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean is at very different stages in different parts of the region. The timing and intensity of the ageing process vary from one country to another and that process is still far from reaching the magnitude seen in Europe and other developed countries, where the older age structure and the pattern of contagion concentrated in this group have had much to do with the high mortality observed within a short period. In fact, although the region’s population is ageing, today only 13% of the population is aged 60 or over, far below the figure of 25% or more in several European countries. The situation across countries is also quite diverse, with some countries at an advanced or very advanced stage in the process, while it is just beginning in others (United Nations, 2019a). The countries with younger populations are, in most cases, the ones in which the social and economic development process is the least advanced and in which the population faces the greatest structural risks. These countries generally devote less resources to health care and are still in the process of organizing their health care systems. They have less experience in assisting and caring for older adults, and the coverage of their social security and protection systems is more limited and unequal.

Url: https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/46488/S2000722_en.pdf?sequence=3

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Aging and Retirement, Health

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