Suzy Khimm published a piece in NBC News on October 28, 2020 that brought virtual tears to our eyes. She anchored her text on words by Joshua Uy, associate professor at University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine: ‘The isolation is robbing elderly people of whatever good days they have left. It accelerates the aging process.’ How could lock down be killing our parents inch by inch? And in a society we hope to hold up as an example to the world.
Lock Down Is Killing Our Parents Inch By Inch Out Of Abundance of Care
Efforts to shield elderly, frail, and disabled residents from the coronavirus have created another wrenching health dilemma. Some residents in care are literally shutting down, as isolation robs them of social nourishment to encourage them. Suzy Khimm writes compellingly of decreased strength, and acceleration of dementia because there is no rhythm to the day.
However, there is little hard evidence lock down is killing our parents inch by inch in care homes. That’s because outside of personal anecdotes, ‘isolation’ seldom appears as cause of death at care homes. But researchers at a Chicago-area nursing home found two-thirds of older people lost weight – dramatically in some cases – during the four months to April 2020. And they attributed this to family visits on hold, and changes of routine they once depended on.
How These Changes Strike at The Heart of Our Social Society
Much of human progress is due to our ability to intelligently combine efforts, and stand together for the common good. Life is less relevant without human contact. Isolation is the harshest punishment of all in prisons. Dr. Louise Aronson is a geriatrician and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
She told Suzy Khimm ‘Sometimes the doors to their rooms are open, and you just see someone sitting in a chair with tears running down their face. People ask me, ‘Is this the rest of my life? If so, I don’t want to go on.’
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Preview Image: Loneliness of Second Story Man
