A webinar was recently held about the governance of an aging society against the backdrop of normalized pandemic prevention and control. Scholars discussed how to protect the physical and mental health of the elderly amid a pandemic.

Liu Weilin, president of the China Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, said that older people have a greater susceptibility to COVID-19 virus. Therefore, protecting their safety has become a baseline for a country’s attitude, choice of policies and values when fighting the epidemic. In this regard, the health and safety of the elderly in China has been well-protected.

Du Peng, vice president of Renmin University of China (RUC), said that addressing the socioeconomic challenges brought by population aging is important to the modernization of China’s national governance system and governance ability. The normalization of pandemic prevention and control requires us to focus on the problems of the aging population, since the issue is relevant to the well-being of hundreds of millions of elderly and their families.

Huang Shisong, a senior research fellow with the National Academy of Development and Strategy at RUC, suggested that, as pandemic prevention and control has become normalized, we should establish a healthcare service system for the elderly as soon as possible. What’s more, we should enhance health education for all, properly locate the health facilities and institutions, and ensure that the elderly are well informed and able to use e-payment technology.

Chen Gong, director of the Institute of Population Research at Peking University, said that we must ensure that the elderly benefit as they should from the “smart community” project and ensure that all elderly have better access to smart services. Furthermore, we must enhance data sharing between home-based elderly-care service platforms and elderly care data platforms, so that we can better follow the living conditions of old people in the communities.

Regarding the loneliness and social isolation facing the elderly, Wu Bei, director of Global Health and Aging Research at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, held that we can better engage elderly in their communities by having senior volunteers, which not only leverages the elderly workforce to improve the quality of community-based services, but also puts those volunteers back in touch with society.