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On September 9, I had the honor of representing GSA at a preconference workshop panel titled “New Normal for Higher Education: Understanding and Embracing an Aging Society,” which was part of Drexel University’s Annual Assessment Conference.
I applaud the Drexel community for embracing this increasingly important topic. The program introduced participants to national trends and best practices in creating an age-diverse and age-inclusive campus that will prepare graduates for success in the 21st century. I was joined by GSA members Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, MSW, FGSA, Laura N. Gitlin, PhD, FGSA, FAAN, and Rose Ann DiMaria-Ghalili, PhD, RN, FASPEN, FAAN, FGSA.
Congratulations to the thousands of researchers, clinicians, and educators who have had their scholarship accepted for presentation during the GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting Online! Your research will be accessible to scholars across the U.S. and around the world and subsequently published in the GSA journal Innovation in Aging.
GSA has worked with the online meeting host platform supporting the conference to provide an additional week for submitting your audio recording and uploading your presentation. The website will then be locked for final testing and preparations before it is opened to meeting registrants in advance of the official kick-off of the meeting on November 4. This advance opening will enable registrants to view sessions and select which presenter discussions to add to their schedules during the November 4 to 7 meeting.
There are only 10 weeks to go until the kick-off of GSA’s 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting Online, taking place November 4 to 7. But there is still time to submit a late breaker poster abstract! If you have compelling research that was not available at the time of the general abstract submissions, the meeting’s Late Breaker Poster Sessions are the perfect place to share your work.
Additionally, in recognition of the impact of COVID-19 and the work many gerontologists are doing in this arena, GSA has added a new session topic, COVID-19 Pandemic, for late breaker poster abstract submissions.
With the opening of registration, excitement for the GSA 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting Online is beginning to ramp up considerably. Many are eager for the chance to present their accepted research in front of the gerontological community, while others are fast preparing their submissions for the Late Beaker Poster Sessions. (The deadline is September 3.)
There’s also excitement because of the unparalleled accessibility to the programming that will be offered. Unlike GSA meetings past, all content will be available outside a single presentation window, with multiple ways to directly interact with presenters at the time of your choosing. So scheduling conflicts won’t be an issue.
The University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging has released a new report, “Everyday Ageism and Health,” and some of the results are startling: more than 80 percent of the older adults polled say they commonly experience at least one form of ageism in their day-to-day lives. What’s more, the poll was conducted before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, where we’ve seen troubling narratives emerge about the value of older adults in our society.
“Understanding Ageism and COVID-19” is the latest in a series of resources that GSA has prepared in response to the ongoing pandemic. It’s an infographic that can help us all, as aging advocates, counter the inaccurate narratives about older people in public discourse today.
As GSA’s COVID-19 Task Force began its work, its members quickly identified ageism, and the perpetuation of ageist myths, as a major concern as evidenced by the coverage of the pandemic in the media. The infographic highlights several false narratives about older adults in the pandemic and reframes them in the context of science.
We’re living in a time when many feel it is difficult to fully protect our health. It sometimes seems we have little control as the specter of COVID-19 looms in the community. This historic pandemic has left many — perhaps older adults in particular — feeling cautious and fearful until the time that a vaccine is developed.
GSA’s National Adult Vaccination Program (NAVP) Workgroup has put together a new fact sheet, “Aging and Immunity: Why Older Adults Are Particularly Susceptible to Diseases Like COVID-19,” that provides valuable information about our immune systems and provides details about the complexities involved in creating a vaccine. Public-private partnerships and manufacturers are moving at a historic pace to bring a safe and effective vaccine to market. While a vaccine may be ready by the end of the year, it may also be significantly longer.
In case you missed it among the crush of emails, text messages, webinars, etc., over the past two weeks, I encourage you to take three minutes to watch a message from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as he lays out key tenets of how we should respond globally to the rash of ageism confronting us during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He gave a video address emphasizing that our response to COVID-19 must respect the rights and dignity of older people. I applaud Guterres and the U.N. for providing a steady voice of advocacy as we continue to see ageist attitudes exposed toward older adults in this time of crisis. At every level of society, we must respond.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has upended virtually every aspect of our personal and professional lives, I am amazed at how the research community has adapted and innovated to continue its pursuit of new scientific insights during this period. While many are impacted by research losses due to interrupted studies and missed opportunities, it’s impressive to see how individuals have adapted to continue their current research and innovated to pursue projects related to COVID-19.
The dissemination of GSA members’ scientific research has been a guiding principle of our Society since its founding 75 years ago. While much of the research community is focused on COVID-19 right now, the important work of GSA members continues across the broad continuum of research endeavors. GSA’s role in disseminating research findings also includes making sure that accurate information about aging is shared with the general public.
One of the chief ways our Society has achieved this is through GSA’s Journalists in Aging Fellows Program, now celebrating its 10th year. This program educates journalists across all media platforms about aging issues and helps them connect with the leading researchers in the GSA membership to share findings with diverse audiences nationwide. Thus, these journalists are a vital link between aging researchers and the general public.
Recently, we received some wonderful news that two journalists received awards for work they produced as participants in the fellowship program.
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