ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has had tremendous impact on how we care about the wellbeing of others, especially older adults. The chapter explores how societal attitudes, including ageism, have been exacerbated by both our personal and institutional management of COVID-19 and subsequent caring of and for older adults. The authors reflect on the notion of caring in different contexts: intergenerational perceptions, the choices made in addressing the spread of the pandemic to long-term care settings, the role of non-professional caregivers and finally, caring from a systemic governmental perspective. The chapter then discusses the extent to which lessons can be learned regarding the desire to care for one another using Tronto’s seminal work on the ethics of care (Tronto, 1998). Factors such as rapid deconfinement measures and the public behaviours worldwide suggest that effecting meaningful transformation within society will require a profound reflection on caring and the process of aging as we move out of the pandemic.
