The term ageism refers to stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination directed towards individuals on the basis of their age. Moreover, like all forms of discrimination, ageism generates divisions and hierarchies in society and influences social position on the basis of age. Ageism also can result in various harms, disadvantages, and injustices, including age-based health inequities and poorer health outcomes. An article published in the April 2021 issue of The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences compares responses to coronavirus control in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where public ageism erupted over the social and economic costs of protecting older adults from COVID-19. Examples of denigrating language used to describe members of older age cohorts include “boomer remover,” “boomer doomer,” “grey shufflers,” and “moldy oldies.” Thirty-five newspapers, media websites, and current affairs magazines were the focus of this investigation: eight for Australia, 12 for the United Kingdom, and 15 for the United States. Searches were conducted daily from April to June 2020, using key words to identify age-related themes on pandemic control.
Despite divergent policies in the three countries, ageism took similar forms. Public responses to lockdowns and other measures cast older adults as a problem to be ignored or solved through segregation. Name-calling, blame, and “so-be-it” reactions toward age vulnerability were commonplace. Policies banning visits to aged care homes angered many relatives and older adults. Indefinite isolation for older adults was widely accepted, especially as a vehicle to end public lockdowns and economic crises. Based on this study, the following conclusions were reached. Older adults have and will continue to bear the brunt of COVID-19 as expressed in social burdens and body counts as the pandemic continues to affect victims around the globe. The rhetoric of disposability underscores age discrimination on a broader scale, with blame toward an age cohort considered to have lived past its usefulness for society and to have enriched itself at the expense of future generations.
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