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Governments across Europe are facing a coronavirus-related revolt by the elderly, who are delaying plans that would see them confined to the home as restrictions on other age groups slowly relax. Seniors say a prolonged “gray block” amounts to age discrimination, and will probably shorten their lives anyway, regardless of the coronavirus.
They have the support of some doctors, who warn about the “blocks” of impact they are having on the “physical and mental health” of the elderly.
In Britain, where everyone over the age of 70, regardless of health, has been classified as “clinically vulnerable” and told to stay home, the British Medical Association (BMA) has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to include the elderly in any plans to ease the blockage of the coronavirus in the coming weeks. Home confinement is harming the mental health of older people, they say.
Age alone should not determine people’s ability to resume aspects of their daily lives when the government begins easing general closure restrictions in the coming weeks, the BMA says.
In a statement, the BMA said: “A general ban on banning the imprisonment of any section of the population would be discriminatory and unacceptable.” The medical association acknowledged that the government should ensure that “people at increased risk of infection are protected,” but added: “This should be based on the individual risk that would apply to all ages rather than an arbitrary age of 60 or 70 “.
Muir Gray, a professor of primary health care at the Oxford University of Great Britain, warned of a “deconditioning syndrome,” in which reduced physical and mental activity “increases the risk of dementia and frailty.”
Those at greatest risk of contracting the coronavirus are those over the age of 70, but the elderly say they should be allowed to do their own risk assessments as other age groups slowly break free from confinement.
“It is up to us to determine our own risk and judge whether we can finally see our children and grandchildren again,” according to commentator Magnus Linklater.
While debating in Britain about the future of the elderly, Boris Johnson’s father Stanley entered the fray, saying he hopes his son will end restrictions on older people in time for his 80th birthday in August, as he hopes to join an expedition to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for a charity.
“I hope they will ease the restrictions in time,” said Elder Johnson.
France
After a setback from the elderly in France, President Emmanuel Macron assured older people that his government will try to avoid setting separate rules for older people as the decline in the coronavirus enclosure develops. The French president was forced to offer the concession when a backlash came after his top scientific adviser, Jean-François Delfraissy, said that home confinement should continue for people over 65 for the foreseeable future.
“The president has followed the growing debate on the situation of elderly citizens,” the Elysee Palace said in a statement last month. “It does not want there to be discrimination among citizens after May 11 in the context of a gradual decrease in containment measures, and it will appeal to individuals’ individual responsibility.”
Generational tensions
The debate highlights generational tensions in Europe. As countries began to close in March and April, governments appealed to intergenerational solidarity, arguing that young people had a duty to comply with restrictions to protect the highest-risk groups, those with underlying health conditions, the old and fragile
While many, if not most, people, both young and old, have responded to appeals, there have been signs of generational friction, as well as complaints from both sides. Some youths bristled at blockades and bypassed restrictions, and the especially rebellious disobeyed the rules on social distancing. Some held “lockdown parties” and “end of the world” drinking sessions, joking on social media sites that the pandemic was the perfect opportunity for the elimination of the baby boom generation. Baby boomers are generally believed to have been born between 1946 and 1964.
Millennials (born between 1981 and the mid-1990s) and Generation Z youth (born between the mid-1990s and 2015), have also complained that it is they who will have to bear most of the economic costs of coronavirus, more than the old one, much like what happened after the 2008 accident. State pensions in most European countries after the financial collapse were protected for the elderly and increased in line with inflation; Austerity measures affect young people the most, advocates say.
Seniors have said they also suffered after 2008 with low returns on their savings, as they are now suffering. However, there have been growing calls for the huge economic cost of pandemic emergency measures to be shared equally between the old and the young in the years to come.
“No wonder society is making sacrifices to protect its elders right now. There is a clear case of intergenerational reciprocity when it comes to covering the fiscal costs of the crisis for years to come,” said Scott Corfe of Social Market. Foundation, a London-based research group.
While some young people, who are less at risk from the coronavirus, have earned the ire of government officials and scientists for cheerfully mocking the coronavirus restrictions, there have also been complaints from some older adults who don’t observe the closing rules, especially in central Europe, where pensioners have flocked markets Romanian authorities cracked down on pensioners and ordered over-65s to venture out of their homes between 11 am and 1 p.m. unless you seek urgent medical attention.
Craig Turp, the editor of Emerging Europe, a news site, suggested that the more carefree attitude of the elderly in Central Europe had a lot to do with the history they have experienced.
“War, deportation, poverty, dictatorship and revolution: they harden the spirit, they darken the soul”. He went on to write, “For anyone who has experienced them, why would an invisible threat like the coronavirus raise any concern?”
