ABSTRACT
We live in a time in which two pandemics, one epidemiological and one socially constructed, have come to intersect with often catastrophic effects. The first is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought to public attention (yet again) the global risks of infectious disease, something the richer countries thought they had largely escaped. The second is a social ‘pandemic’, one in which the population ageing has been characterised as a growing threat to the stability of societies and economies. The intersection of these two ‘pandemics’ can be readily observed in the discourses of COVID-19 responses and the impact on older people themselves, including both those living in the community and, more especially, those in various forms of institutional care. More specifically, we have seen how these two events coalesce around the treatment of older people, especially those with a dementia. In many countries, the consequences for older people have often been a crude utilitarian discussion about who should be treated in our health and social care systems, and who should be sacrificed for the ‘good’ of the ‘majority’. In this chapter, we apply a necropolitical perspective to this convergence of pandemics and their unfolding consequences for older people in general, and more specifically those with adementia, as the pandemic progresses in societies where older people were already vulnerable. We observe how dementia is developing its own particular moment through the production and enforcement of a variety of locations, processes and rhetorics. Looking forwards, this ‘moment’ may set the scene for the future care of and attitudes towards people with a dementia for years to come.
