Abstract
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly contagious pathogen that has shown to result in high rates of morbidity and mortality. In early 2020, the COVID-19 global crisis appeared in numerous countries, spreading rapidly with multiple waves of infection. This has resulted in unprecedented health, social and economic challenges in terms of public health, health and continuing care systems, economies, communities, and families. We have conceptualized COVID-19 as a ‘gero-pandemic,’ defined as a disease that has spread globally with heightened significance and deleterious consequences for older people. This chapter examines the structural, system-level contexts of COVID-19, and individual-level risks, experiences and responses. We frame this chapter using a resilience model of aging, which provides a multi-level conceptual apparatus for understanding how societies and individuals overcome the adversities created by the COVID-19 gero-pandemic by identifying systemic weaknesses/problems, areas of strength and resilience, and evidence for successful mitigation and innovative responses. We are led to several core recommendations for public health and health promotion as societies attempt to adapt and respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
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Wister, A.V. (2021). Precarious Aging: COVID-19 Risk, Resilience and Response. In: Linkov, I., Keenan, J.M., Trump, B.D. (eds) COVID-19: Systemic Risk and Resilience. Risk, Systems and Decisions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71587-8_9
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