Journal of the Virus Year: My experiences with the virus: March 17, 2020

William Henry Holmes, born Cadiz, OH 1846-died Royal Oak, MI 1933 Public Domain Smithsonian American Art Museum

Now we have gatherings limited to no more than 10 people, isolation zones, health emergency, shelter in place, and last but not least social distancing. In the "good old days" they simply put a sign on your door that said "quarantine." I realized that I have been "social distancing" for years. The irony of my being an online social networking maven is that I am actually not a very social person. As the coronavirus pandemic further limits my social contact, I begin to realize how little social contact I really have every week even without the virus. Due to the fact that our neighborhood is made up of mostly really old people, we are already socially distanced just by our membership in the category of the elderly.

I guess from my perspective all the references to "those over sixty" being at an increased risk from the virus are somewhat amusing. We are at an "increased risk" for just about every other possible category of life-threatening conditions imaginable. See "Age-Related Diseases and Clinical and Public Health Implications for the 85 Years Old and Over Population." for an example. This article starts out by listing all the conditions that are part of "normal aging" such as the following:

• Sensory changes
• Muscle strength and fat changes
• Immunosenescence (say that ten times rapidly)
• Urologic changes

Despite the threat of being infected with the coronavirus, I can spend my isolated time worrying about cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, osteoarthritis, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, and several other chronic conditions. Not to mention the fact, of course, that many of my friends have already died off long ago and continue to die off all the time.

But look at the bright side, now we have something to take our minds off of all these background conditions. We can spend our time in social distancing worrying about the coronavirus. What a relief.

Well, I can add more to the list. What about walking speed, mobility disability, falls, frailty, continence, depression and psychological and cognitive disability? Guess what? According to the article cited above, "social isolation predicts mortality and other adverse outcomes in older adults." So we are doomed if we go out in society from the virus but we are equally at risk from the imposed isolation. By the way, no one read me my rights before I got old.

At one time, I obtained an insurance license and so I became aware of the actuarial tables. Here is a link to one from the Social Security Administration: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html. At my age, my probability of dying within one year from all causes is about .035963 and my life expectancy is about 11.18 years. One of my neighbors is 92 years old. His life expectancy is about 3 years. What does it mean to him that he is now subject to "social distancing?" I am guessing that he is even only contacted by his family infrequently because he has outlived most of them. How socially distant can you get?

You can see why someone with a short life expectancy might get depressed.

What can you do in your social distancing condition? How about using social media and the telephone to talk to your older (really old) friends and neighbors? That might help them avoid some measure of depression and ameliorate the effects of your own and their social distancing.