Advice on providing elderly relatives with coronavirus advice

Read the full article here:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/13/elderly-relatives-coronavirus-advice

An excerpt: “The data from China could not be more stark. Of the 70- to 79-year-olds infected with coronavirus there, 8% have died. Among the over-80s, the case fatality rate is 15%. Put another way, if our mortality rates mirror China’s, one in seven of octogenarians who contract coronavirus will die from it. These are odds too serious to ignore: not least when an overwhelmed NHS may end up being forced, as is happening in Italy right now, to restrict the use of ventilators to the under-65s.If you, like me, have much adored older relatives who are meeting your pleas to self-isolate with amusement or intransigence, you may be feeling increasingly desperate. In these circumstances, simple advice is effective: the vital message to convey is the importance of self-isolation and good hand hygiene.Ideally, I would argue, those over-70 should now be self-isolating for their own protection. Perhaps you can enable a parent or loved one to do so more easily by delivering their groceries, setting up Skype links, downloading box sets, or boosting their morale with simple phone calls and messages.”