Gullette discusses Eldercide at NFPL

By Isabell Macrina
Hometown Weekly Reporter

Needham Free Public Library (NFPL) welcomed author, scholar, and activist Margaret Morganroth Gullette for a lecture titled: “American Eldercide and Ageism Today.” In her recent book, “American Eldercide: How it Happened, How to Prevent it,” Gullette argues that during the COVID-19 pandemic cultural biases and government abandonment results in disproportionate deaths among the elderly; nothing about it was inevitable.

When discussing the impacts of the pandemic, most focus on the younger generation and how it affected their social development, but not many people are talking about the impact it had on the older population. Gullette was joined by Doctor Erlene Rosowsky, an expert in geriatric society, to talk about what “eldercide” is, and what could have been done.

Eldercide is the homicide of an elderly person, and refers to the mass, preventable deaths of older people due to systemic neglect or indifference. Gullette has always been an advocate against ageism, but the inspiration for this book came when reading hospital guidelines at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

If there was a shortage of ventilators, the people who would be admitted would be restricted to the younger crowd. Those ages 65 and above would be basically ignored, in an act of ageism they would “prefer to keep young people alive.”

Gullette delves further into the neglect of the elderly in what most think they are most attended to, nursing homes. In 2019 there were 15,400 nursing homes, and of those 1,950 reported no deaths. Regulations slipped in the pandemic, private equity promoted the understaffing of these facilities, and they were inspected less. Gullette argues these contributed to the preventable deaths in these facilities, because people could have survived. She shared the story of one patient, Sylvia, who survived both the 1919 flu epidemic and COVID-19. They have the resilience, so where was the outrage? Why didn’t people care about this, or even see it?

Gullette’s work with the Dignity Alliance of Massachusetts also fuels her passion for the proper care of the elderly. Together they work to keep people out of nursing homes and raise the standards of elder care. People try not to think about getting older

Through a creative nonfiction lens that presents data in a comprehensive way and shares stories of the marginalized community affected by this neglect, Gullette’s book is dynamic and shows the impact that is still lingering through the healthcare system in regard to the elderly.