The news went largely unnoticed. She was drowned Friday in an avalanche of information on the consequences of the coronavirus for the federal finances. And yet the National Council’s finance committee is also concerned with those over 65. She formally asked the Federal Council to stop discriminating against them by presenting them without any nuance as a risk group. This has the effect of stigmatizing them with certain young people who accuse them of not remaining confined to the home. Collateral damage attested on Monday by an investigation by the Haute École de travail social de Friborg.
Also read our editorial: “Stop paternalism towards the 65+”
The proposal to qualify the prevention discourse with regard to the 65+ comes from Olivier Feller, vice-president of the PLR parliamentary group. “I don’t understand this age segregation. Many people called or wrote to me to complain. Seniors are today confined to a psychological ghetto. The Federal Office of Public Health considers them to be vulnerable persons without distinction. As if you could reduce a person to their age. ”
Septuagenarians in great shape
The elected representative of Vaud is surprised that the Confederation continues to spread this abusive generalization while the OFSP has meanwhile refined its prevention criteria for people who suffer from diabetes or hypertension. “For the 65+ age group, it’s the same thing. There are huge threshold effects. ” This is confirmed by the doctor and national adviser Michel Matter (Vert lib / GE), who sits on the same commission. “I am 55 years old. Well I can assure you that there are septuagenarians who are in better shape than me. “You also have over 50s, stressed at work and overweight, who may be more at risk than an older person with no illness.”
Michel Matter notes that this alarmist discourse on people aged 65 and over also has a perverse effect on the medical level. “Some people no longer come to do a check-up or get treatment. But there is no less infarction than before. ” If the Confederation absolutely wants to fix a group at risk according to age, because of the higher mortality rate of seniors, it must, according to him, move the cursor at least from 65 to 70-75 years +.
Negative image
What do seniors think about the way they are treated during this crisis? The Friborg HETS carried out an online survey to which 2,500 seniors from French-speaking Switzerland responded. Their profile: average age, 72 years; the oldest are 95 years old; most live in couples and a small half live in the canton of Vaud.
It shows that 60.3% of participants find that people aged 65 and over are treated unfairly because of their age. “They also feel that young people have a more negative image of them than before and that this image has been reinforced by the media,” said Professor Christian Maggiori, head of the survey. The Positive Side? Christian Maggiori believes that the 65 + years have remained active in the face of the crisis. “They reconnected lost contacts, learned to communicate by video and offered help to those who needed it.”
Created: 04.27.2020, 9:51 p.m.
–
