What is reason for rise in cases in over 60’s?

[Watermelon999]

In our area this has really risen and obviously leads to more hospitalisations and more poorly patients, with rise in itu admissions.

What is the reason for this?

Is it the result of people still seeing family? Or family providing childcare? (I know some will still be working themselves).

Because they work, they go shopping for food, use public transport, they are expected to provide childcare for their grandchildren etc.

If I was in my 70s or 80s right now I might very well be thinking that I would trade quality for quantity (I wouldn't expect an ICU bed though I'd have an advance directive)

Thats a very fair and honest view actually.

Volunteering -
childcare
everyday shopping (especially if you don't have access to computer internet)
shopping for things you want to check quality before ordering
boredom & loneliness (ie mental health needs)
family caring role (disabled adult children & older family members etc)
medical needs (pharmacies only deliver for free in our area if you are vulnerable, including eye checks & (if you can get them!) dentists & flu jabs!!
simply -if I stay in another day I will kill my partner syndrome!

We are following the guidelines to the letter and not even doing things that are allowed, but what we are doing is still risky.

I'm not working.
DH is working from home.
Ocado delivery.
Ordering from the internet.
Not going inside coffee shops, pubs or restaurants.
Not doing any paid activities inside.

However we are:

Support bubble for single daughter and her two school aged children.
Child care for when she's working. (4 days this week)
We are doing occasional school pick ups too.
Doing handovers with the daughter's ex. (He lives in tier 2 area.)

We are both in the vulnerable category and I am in my late 50's and my husband is in his early 60's. I would rather not do the risky things, but this is real life and there are no other alternatives. If we get covid it will be because of the unavoidable contact with our family.

People going about their normal business but the increase in covid meaning it is circulating generally in the community means they are more likely to catch it than they were a few months ago.

@AuntieStella

Nice lot of stereotypes in that.

I'm sure we've all seen people of all ages breaking the rules it acting inadvisedly. Still wrong to label a whole generation as crap and suggest that they are inherently feeble minded.

Well exactly. It seems to be going through all ages groups. It’s just doing its thing.

I had work in a seaside town in September and it was packed with the over 60s on holiday.
Bars, restaurants, hotels, all full.
We saw a coach of very elderly people pull up at a fish and chip shop - can’t have been anyone under 75 on there!

I don’t blame any of the m by the way.
Life is bloody short as it is.

Though I do get a bit pissed off that so many other things are being curtailed to supposedly protect this age group. But hey ho.

Why on earth wouldn't they while the under 60s rates are going up? We're not sent to a covid-free island on our 60th birthday. We're not banned from anything the under 60s can do.

Because it is a virus and you can't control it, no matter what precautions you take or what the government is saying?

You can't disinfect every surface, object you come in contact with while you are out in the world working or shopping...

Even masks and gloves are not going to offer 100% protection.

Even if you isolate at home you would need to disinfect any letter/package and items that are delivered and so on. Even then there might be a risk to be infected.

It is silly to suggest/assume that you only get infected if you break the rules...

Also frankly older people have a right to decide that they don't want to spend their last months/year of life locked up and in isolation...some will decide they would rather see their family than survive a few more but live a life that is not worth living anyway. Not everyone who is the older age groups will automatically die of covid if they catch it anyway.

If I was in my 70s or 80s right now I might very well be thinking that I would trade quality for quantity (I wouldn't expect an ICU bed though I'd have an advance directive)

Quite naturally, the desire to cling on to life tends to intensify as people grow older. It’s hard to know until you’re actually that age, and - say - in good health.

@Requinblanc we are talking 60 year olds why would they be looking at their last year of life?

I'm 67 and working in education without the opportunity to properly social distance, despite teaching adults. My employer doesn't care one jot as they can say they are following government guidelines, ignoring the fact that the reality is that that's impossible.

Redolent I think that is exactly the problem and I hope I won't change my mind when I get to 70.

Of course it's always a temptation to want a few more good years but usually you get a lot more crap ones instead. When my grandma died in her bed in her 80s I wished she could have had a bit longer as she was still completely independent and loving life but on reflection that's what anyone would want. A quick end with no suffering. She had declined a valve replacement a few years earlier and I think she was right to do so. Her friend in the same situation had the op and had 10 years more but 5 of them were spent housebound, dependent on others and very miserable.

We have such wonders of modern medicine now that you can be saved from the heart attack that would have carried you off in your 60s/70s only to moulder away in a care home with vascular dementia in your 80s or 90s.

I don't agree with euthanasia but I do think modern medicine has gone too far in officiously trying to save elderly people and I hope I will be brave enough to decline such heroic striving and go out on a high if I get the chance.

I think that now my mum has died my dad (not depressed or ill himself) doesn't want to start over again although he's only early 70s. He doesn't actively want to die. He wants as many good years with family and friends as he can but he has told me that for anything serious he would not want any operations etc he would like to let nature take its course now as his worst fear is a long struggle with dementia as his patients had.

(I hope no-one is going to get offended and say I am ageist. It's a personal decision that I don't force on anyone else and my mum has recently died so I am thinking about all this)

Older people of this age might use public transport more as they have a free bus pass. especially those on lower incomes who don't have a car. Less likely to shop online. (from my experience anyway)

I suppose my reason for writing this post is that I can understand how the virus has spread in schools, colleges and universities due to the lack of distancing and masks. This could explain the rise in the younger age groups (plus the 30-50s age group which would be their parents).

Obviously I can understand how it could spread to those very vulnerable who need help with personal care etc and those in care homes.

I know a lot of over 60’s are still working, and that could be one reason, especially if they work somewhere it is difficult to distance or are unable to wear masks.

I just feel that if we understood and had more specific information on how people are catching it, it may help people to make more informed decisions. Eg. How easy is it to catch the virus when shopping with a mask on? Or from sitting in a restaurant 2m away from other groups? Can you really catch it from the post? Or is it much more likely in indoor houses?

I don’t feel this information is made clear enough if known. Eg to say it is spreading in pubs doesn’t explain if it’s people sitting 2m apart and eating in household groups or hoards of people standing too closely together (like the pictures from Liverpool and London)...

Also may be more likely to see doctors...chemists..for underlying health conditions

It's because it's impossible to completely isolate from society, particularly if you're older as you are more likely to need personal care and medical attention
I'm 62 and am, astonishingly, self caring and not in need of medical attention.

I've just remembered I'm 63 not 62

I come from a large family, most of us are in tier 2 and it's the middle aged like me (47) teens and students who are all being sensible and observing the rules. The older family members are mainly disregarding them. They say things like: oh they can put me in prison then! And.. I'm not sitting outside at a café in the rain we'll have no choice but to go inside (with friends).

Simply not doing it doesn't feature.

All this is despite knowing families whose lives have been devastated by Covid, and we have an A&E doctor, a medical student, a nurse and a physio in the family.

Where are you that the biggest rise is in that age group?
Matt Hancock said it was teenagers and young adults.

@TheSeedsOfADream

Where are you that the biggest rise is in that age group? Matt Hancock said it was teenagers and young adults.

NW - live in tier 2 but work in tier 3 (nhs).

Massive rise in 60+ admissions and deaths.

Obviously this has prompted the increase in restrictions.