Title: The Long-term Care Pandemic: International Perspectives on COVID-19 and the Future of Nursing Homes
Abstract: The increase in life expectancy at birth witnessed in the twentieth century has been attributed to major public health achievements, including vaccination, control of infectious disease and reductions in tobacco use.Population aging came to be regarded as a triumph of modern life, with cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia deemed to be the great obstacles to further progress in increasing health and life expectancy.The global pandemic of COVID-19 has brought infectious disease as a major threat to older persons back into sharp focus.The paper proposes five major changes to long-term care, with a view to protecting the elderly from the ravages of infectious disease while simultaneously providing greater quality of care and quality of life.