Posts Tagged With ‘ COVID ’

The remote work necessitated by COVID may be here to stay in five English-speaking countries from Australia to the United States. That’s the conclusion from a study of 250 million online job ads – nearly half of them in this country. The number of postings in January that offered remote work for one or more days per week was three to five times larger than the remote work positions advertised on the cusp of the pandemic in 2019. Notably, their numbers increased sharply last year as COVID was retreating. The countries in the study are: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and... Continue Reading

It’s been well documented that the COVID recession and layoffs in 2020 were particularly hard on Black, Hispanic, and Latino Americans. But if they had a disabling physical and medical condition, they felt it much more. In a new study examining the cumulative impact of having a disability combined with the disadvantages of being an older minority worker or retiree,  the racial disparities were apparent on a variety of fronts – in the inability to pay for essentials, at work, and through some difficulty obtaining medical care. Past research has shown that once the pandemic hit, people with... Continue Reading

By Linda Ballou, NABBW’s Adventure Travel Associate Travel Is Opening Up, All Around the World I’ve just returned from the Adventure Travel Show, and am delighted to report that the travel industry is roaring back with a vengeance.  Airlines are ramping up flights, training and hiring pilots, and upgrading infrastructure to keep up with the demand. Twenty-five new ships for leisure travelers will set sail this year. But, with this frenzy to meet the pent-up demand for travel experiences comes higher prices and over-burdened service workers. How do we best navigate the age of disruption?... Continue Reading

I recently retired and found my productivity quickly went from 110% to barely hitting 8% on a good day. In all fairness, I contracted COVID two days after packing up my desk and spent the next four in bed. The first time I had COVID in December of 2020, before I was eligible for a vaccine, my only symptom was back pain. At that time I was put through a myriad of tests—from peeing in a cup to be sure I didn’t have a UTI, to a PET scan to check for a reoccurrence of lymphoma—only to discover it wasn’t The Big C thankfully, but The Big C-O-V-I-D. This Christmas, despite being a human pin cushion... Continue Reading

Hannah Boulton defies the stereotype of the lonely retiree longing for companionship during the holidays. But after two-plus years of a pandemic, even this dynamic former nurse who’s lived on three continents started feeling a little isolated. Ally Brooks and Hannah Boulton Then she met Ally Brooks, a high school senior, through the Sages and Seekers program at the senior center in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in September. The program, modeled on a national nonprofit’s workshop, paired up seven retirees with seven high school seniors. It was such a success – the program was Boulton’s’ idea... Continue Reading

The most COVID deaths were among Americans over age 60, who accounted for 300,000 of the 500,000 U.S. deaths from the disease in its first year. A new study by the Center for Retirement Research finds, not surprisingly, that the oldest survivors of the early months of the pandemic were healthier than those who died from the virus. Taking this into account, the researchers estimated what mortality might look like in a “post-COVID” world in an analysis that was based on a big assumption – that COVID’s deaths were confined to a single year. Factoring in the early impact of the virus, the researchers... Continue Reading

In COVID’s early months, millions of workers’ incomes dried up as the unemployment rate skyrocketed. But older Americans were somewhat shielded from the downturn. That’s because they either are over 62 and on Social Security or receive federal disability benefits every month at higher rates than young adults. And just like everybody else, they got relief checks from Congress to soften the blow from the pandemic. Yet, despite the reliability of a government check, older Americans with disabilities suffered from “acute financial insecurity,” according to a new study that seeks to understand... Continue Reading

The purpose of the 2020 restrictions on older people’s activities during COVID – whether voluntary or government enforced – were crucial: keeping them alive as the deadly Delta variant raced through the population worldwide. But saving lives came at the cost of grandparents’ mental health, according to a study in the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences about grandparents in England. In the scary early months of the pandemic, grandparents cut off or limited interactions with their grandchildren. In England, the grandparents who isolated themselves suffered more mental health problems,... Continue Reading

My clients who struggle with diet, fitness, eating disorders and mental health conditions have seen their issues increase significantly over the last twelve months, in part due to the emotional distress of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdowns. The pandemic has resulted in feelings of isolation, fear, loneliness, and panic. Consequently, there has been a dramatic spike in mental health issues as people struggle with these difficult emotions, along with widespread insecurity and uncertainty. Conditions such as depression, anxiety, panic disorder, and burn out are increasingly common. We have additionally... Continue Reading