IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v11y2022i11p498-d956971.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Shielding without a Shield—Older People under COVID-19: A Comparison of Four Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Johnston H. C. Wong

    (Department of Social Science, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, BNU-HKBU United International College, Zhuhai 519088, China)

  • Ghee W. Ho

    (Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, BNU-HKBU United International College, Zhuhai 519088, China)

Abstract

Older people were globally the most vulnerable during the pandemic. This paper examines the mortality and psychological crisis of older people during the pandemic in four cities, namely Wuhan, Milan, London, and Hong Kong, in order to explain their high death rates. The sample cities were purposefully selected to cover different degrees of social connectedness and outbreak periods. Quantitative data were employed to account for death and suicide data. Qualitative data analyses in government reports, public press releases, NGO announcements, and journal articles were used to study government responses and disruptions of essential healthcare services. Published scientific studies provided important information on the psychological stress and resilience of older people. Findings based on a welfare regime perspective showed that society and governments have not learned from the experiences of other countries, which resulted in high numbers of preventable deaths. Older people have successfully coped with living difficulties while serious psychological disturbances and suicidal ideations were absent at least for the period up to 2022. Older care home residents, unfortunately, were not protected with proper shielding and available vaccinations. Public inefficiency and negligence contributed to a disproportionately high rate of mortality in nursing homes.

Suggested Citation

  • Johnston H. C. Wong & Ghee W. Ho, 2022. "Shielding without a Shield—Older People under COVID-19: A Comparison of Four Cities," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-35, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:11:p:498-:d:956971
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/11/498/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/11/11/498/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Flaminia Ortenzi & Emiliano Albanese & Marta Fadda, 2020. "A Transdisciplinary Analysis of COVID-19 in Italy: The Most Affected Country in Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Fengfeng Huang & Pengfei Guo & Yulan Wang, 2022. "Modeling Patients' Illness Perception and Equilibrium Analysis of Their Doctor Shopping Behavior," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(3), pages 1216-1234, March.
    3. Juan Yang & Xinhua Chen & Xiaowei Deng & Zhiyuan Chen & Hui Gong & Han Yan & Qianhui Wu & Huilin Shi & Shengjie Lai & Marco Ajelli & Cecile Viboud & Prof Hongjie Yu, 2020. "Disease burden and clinical severity of the first pandemic wave of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Indrikis A. Krams & Priit Jõers & Severi Luoto & Giedrius Trakimas & Vilnis Lietuvietis & Ronalds Krams & Irena Kaminska & Markus J. Rantala & Tatjana Krama, 2021. "The Obesity Paradox Predicts the Second Wave of COVID-19 to Be Severe in Western Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-10, January.
    2. Liangdong Lu & Jia Xu & Jiuchang Wei & F. LeRon Shults & Xing Lin Feng, 2024. "The role of emotion and social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic phase transitions: a cross-cultural comparison of China and the United States," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Juan Yang & Valentina Marziano & Xiaowei Deng & Giorgio Guzzetta & Juanjuan Zhang & Filippo Trentini & Jun Cai & Piero Poletti & Wen Zheng & Wei Wang & Qianhui Wu & Zeyao Zhao & Kaige Dong & Guangjie , 2021. "Despite vaccination, China needs non-pharmaceutical interventions to prevent widespread outbreaks of COVID-19 in 2021," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(8), pages 1009-1020, August.
    4. Marina Giachino & Camille Beatrice G. Valera & Sabina Rodriguez Velásquez & Muriel Anna Dohrendorf-Wyss & Liudmila Rozanova & Antoine Flahault, 2020. "Understanding the Dynamics of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Real-Time Analysis of Switzerland’s First Wave," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Fulvio Adorni & Nithiya Jesuthasan & Elena Perdixi & Aleksandra Sojic & Andrea Giacomelli & Marianna Noale & Caterina Trevisan & Michela Franchini & Stefania Pieroni & Liliana Cori & Claudio Maria Mas, 2022. "Epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Italy Using Real-World Data: Methodology and Cohort Description of the Second Phase of Web-Based EPICOVID19 Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-16, January.
    6. Nikša Alfirević & Koraljka Modić Stanke & Fabrizio Santoboni & Giuseppe Curcio, 2023. "The Roles of Professional Socialization and Higher Education Context in Prosocial and Pro-Environmental Attitudes of Social Science and Humanities versus Business Students in Italy and Croatia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-14, June.
    7. Manuela Casula & Federica Galimberti & Marica Iommi & Elena Olmastroni & Simona Rosa & Mattia Altini & Alberico L. Catapano & Elena Tragni & Elisabetta Poluzzi, 2022. "Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Therapeutic Continuity among Outpatients with Chronic Cardiovascular Therapies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-11, September.
    8. Huang, Fengfeng & Guo, Pengfei & Wang, Yulan, 2022. "Optimal group testing strategy for the mass screening of SARS-CoV-2," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    9. Wenpei Zhang & Shankuo Xiong & Yelianghui Zheng & Jinnan Wu, 2022. "Response Efficacy and Self-Efficacy Mediated the Relationship between Perceived Threat and Psychic Anxiety among College Students in the Early Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-11, February.
    10. Uxue Alfonso Viguria & Núria Casamitjana, 2021. "Early Interventions and Impact of COVID-19 in Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-15, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:11:p:498-:d:956971. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.