The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the rights and health of older persons in our societies. While the infection spreads among persons of all ages, older persons and those with underlying medical conditions are at higher risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19. Symptomatic individuals in their seventies are twenty times more likely to require hospitalization than young adults, and case fatality rates suggest a notable increase in risk after age 60, with progressively worse outcomes at older ages. Less visible but no less worrisome are the broader effects: health care denied for conditions unrelated to COVID-19; neglect and abuse in institutions and care facilities; an increase in poverty and unemployment; the dramatic impact on well-being and mental health; and the trauma of stigma and discrimination. As the pandemic spreads  across low, middle and high income countries, the needs of older persons may also differ, and severe disease and mortality rates for older persons may increase even further if fragile health and social protection systems are overwhelmed...

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