GBO NEWS: SPECIAL ACCESS ISSUE 7 Journalists in Aging Expert Zooms Online – Election Aftermath on Health and Economic Security; COVID’s Future; Age Demographics; Older Workers; Ageism; & Palliative Care
GENERATIONS BEAT ONLINE NEWS
E-News of the Journalists Network on Generations – Our 27th Year.
November 20, 2020 — Volume 27, Number 12
EDITOR’S NOTE: GBONews, e-news of the Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), publishes alerts for journalists, producers and authors covering generational issues. Send your news of important stories or books (by you and others), fellowships, awards or pertinent kvetches to GBO News Editor Paul Kleyman. To subscribe to GBONews.org at no charge, simply sending a request to Paul with your name, address, phone number and editorial affiliation or note that you freelance. For each issue, you’ll receive the table of contents in an e-mail, so just click through to the full issue at www.gbonews.org. GBONews does not provide its list to other entities.
In This Issue: We Concede – Plenty of Great Resources for Reporters!
1. SPECIAL ACCESS ISSUE: TOP EXPERTS IN 7 ZOOMS
2. THE STORY BOARD (FELLOWSHIP EDITION)
*** “What the 2020 Election Results Mean for Older Americans,” by Chris Farrell, PBS Next Avenue;
*** “Where are the aging experts in Biden’s COVID-19 task force?” by Liz Seegert, Association of Health Care Journalists “Aging” blog;
*** In “‘Work’ Isn’t a Four-Letter Word for Older Americans,” by Kerry Hannon, Market Watch.
3. PANEL LINKS TO THE FUTURE OF OUR AGING: *** Election & Aging Aftermath: 7 Journalists in Aging Fellowship Zoom Links.
4. EYES ON THE PRIZE: Ten 2020 Journalists in Aging Continuing Fellows
1. TOP NATIONAL EXPERTS IN 7 ZOOMS
This special issue of GBONews.org will bring our subscribers first-time access to the entire program we co-created for the 11th Journalists in Aging Fellows Program. Indeed, the pandemic irony of our project (with our collaborator, the Gerontological Society of America, or GSA), is that in past years we’d have been sequestered in-person together, although not quarantined, for a day of live and unrecorded presentations on generational issues by some of the leading experts in the field. The 2020 program was to have been at GSA’s Annual Scientific Meeting in Philadelphia. We’d have been there to witness all the Keystone Cop Lawyers suing to “Stop the Count,” while their Arizona co-conspirators were shouting, “Count them all.”
Of course, the sorrowful reason for our going virtual, COVID-19, for our flying Zoom instead of United was also a dominant theme of the virtual news-reporting series we can now offer everyone online. Undergirding all turmoil of this historical moment’s developments in sickness and in democracy is the truth that will concede to no electoral news cycle – Nobody’s getting any younger.
The seven online panels now available to you address the current state of aging in America. That wrinkle has been and continues to be an under-covered undercurrent of any attention-Tweeting news flashes of the moment. Certainly, the coronavirus and Mr. Trump’s electoral intransigence have heightened public awareness of our aging culture from pervasive nursing home deaths to the midlife crisis of massive layoffs of older workers. Yet those and related trends merely exacerbate the ongoing shortfalls of a health care and economic system that’s long been heading our aging America into a retirement crisis.
Will the ultimate irony be that tumult and tragedy have awakened America to the challenges—and, we’d argue, to the greater potential advantages—of our collectively added years? Or will it be in our system’s continued blindness to what today’s crises have so starkly revealed?
The seven fellowship webinars (each 90 minutes), are listed below with their participating speakers and YouTube links to the recordings. They included major authorities in aging (we can provide contacts for interviews), who focused on the vital issues for ahead. The sessions covered a wide range of subjects, such as the spreading demographic diversity of those 65-plus across the nation, confronting ageism in the COVID-triggered “OK, Boomer” backlash, challenges for older workers, and pandemic impacts on elders’ health and end-of-life crises.
Two Nov. 11 post-election “Aftermath” sessions on health care and income policy directions for the new administration and Congress included top national experts, as two former heads of the U.S. Administration on Aging, acknowledged advisors to the new administration, a 2020 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, and key figures in developing California’s model new MasterPlan for Aging.
Zooming permitted us to bring in top speakers who might not otherwise have attend the originally scheduled live conference. We were also able to invite leading generations-beat journalists to serve as volunteer session moderators. Besides the fellowship program’s new co-director, Liz Seegert, also “Aging” blog editor for the Association of Health Care Journalists, and me as fellowship co-founder, they included these former fellows: authors and columnists Kerry Hannon and Chris Farrell; PBS Next Avenue Managing Editor Rich Eisenberg; Kaiser Health News “Navigating Aging“ columnist Judy Graham; and KALW Public Radio’s JoAnn Mar, producer of EndofLifeRadio.org.
For those feeling Zoomed out and not ready for any part of 10.5 hours of fellowship webinars, we’re pleased to start this report with the following links to articles reporting at least partly on their panels by three of our program moderators, Farrell, Seegert and Hannon. The seven Zoom recordings will be up from now on, and the speakers available for follow-up contacts.
2. THE STORY BOARD (FELLOWSHIP EDITION)
*** “What the 2020 Election Results Mean for Older Americans,” by Chris Farrell, PBS Next Avenue (Nov. 16, 2020): Farrell, senior economics contributor for American Public Media’s Marketplace, is the author most recently of Purpose and a Paycheck: Finding Meaning, Money and Happiness in the Second Half of Life.
His lead: “The upcoming Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration’s immediate challenges are obvious: Fight the worsening pandemic and bolster the economic recovery. But the 2020 election may also mean that older Americans will see major policy changes affecting their retirement and health care coverage. In fact, legislation to improve retirement security is one broadly popular initiative likely to find support even in a divided Congress and country. At least that was the sentiment of a virtual panel . . . for the 11th annual Journalists in Aging Fellows Program. (You can watch the panel discussion on YouTube.)
He continued that the expert panel, titled “Election Aftermath: Social Security and Other Policy Stories on Income Security” featured four experts “with long and distinguished resumés and insider status: Robert “Bob” Blancato, president of Matz, Blancato & Associates, a former congressional staffer and a Next Avenue Influencer in Aging; Brian Lindberg, executive director of the Consumer Coalition for Quality Health Care and also a former congressional staffer; Jeanette Takamura, dean emerita of Columbia University School of Social Work and former Assistant Secretary of Aging and Fernando Torres-Gil, professor of Social Welfare and Public Policy at UCLA and also a former Assistant Secretary of Aging.”
Farrell not only highlighted key points by the speakers, but added important caveats.
On U.S. retirement security, speakers noted some bipartisan efforts, such as a bill by Reps. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Kevin Brady (R-Texas) of the House Ways and Means Committee, “to help workers save more for retirement and create incentives for employers to offer retirement savings plans. Their Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2020 builds off the foundation of last year’s passage of the popular bipartisan SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement).” Farrell quoted political news outlet, The Hill, as saying, “The bipartisan interest from key lawmakers signals that retirement legislation could cross the finish line even if there is split control of Congress in 2021.”
Farrell’s caveat: “Bills like these don’t go nearly far enough to deal with the appalling gap in America’s private-sector retirement savings system. Roughly a third of private-sector workers lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The shortfall is concentrated mainly among lower-income employees and people who work for small businesses.”
The article goes on, “During the presidential campaign, Biden called for several changes to boost Social Security benefits, especially for lower-income retirees and the oldest old. But a Biden administration could well end up grappling with the looming issue of Social Security solvency, not necessarily by choice.”
He offers some historical context, then quotes Blancato, “The time to do a bipartisan Social Security commission is now before the situation gets too out of hand.” Farrell adds, “Lindberg expressed skepticism that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (potentially Minority Leader, depending on the outcome of the two Georgia Senate runoff elections in January) would let Biden get credit for shoring up Social Security’s funding.”
On Medicare, says Farrell, “Biden has proposed lowering the age of eligibility age for Medicare health care coverage to 60 from its current 65 for Americans who would like to enroll earlier.” While panelists thought this to be possible, Farrell added, “Bringing younger people into Medicare helps the government’s health care system’s finances, while relieving employers of covering some older employees lowers the business’ health insurance expenses.” On the other side, though, “Hospitals would likely lobby against this change because they’d stand to earn less money if some of their older patients were covered by Medicare, which reimburses health care providers less than private insurers do.”
The panelists agreed they’d like to see public policy discussions about aging shift from the needs of people 50+ to more of an intergenerational framework. Torres-Gil emphasized, “Not only must we be advocates, whether it is health security, retirement security, pension reform, protecting Social Security or protecting Medicare and Medicaid, but we must find ways to drill down and begin to represent the interests of younger, emerging, ethnic minority populations. Otherwise, I fear we may see greater incidents of generational tension, exacerbated by racial and ethnic tensions.”
Takamura, focusing on women, noted, “You don’t get to be 65 and all of a sudden — ‘Oh my God, I have all these dilemmas.’ It builds from the moment of birth for women,” she said. “We have a real opportunity to make significant strides toward gender parity.” Largely credited with fostering congressional passage of the National Family Caregiver support Program, Takamura said that today she hopes Washington will help America’s professional and family caregivers.
*** “Where are the aging experts in Biden’s COVID-19 task force?” by Liz Seegert, Association of Health Care Journalists “Aging” blog (Nov. 16, 2020): She emphasized, among several disturbing facts, that “while adults 65 and older account for 16% of the U.S. population, they comprise 80% of COVID-19 deaths in the nation, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.”
Her blog pointed out that President-elect Biden’s all-star COVID-19 task force includes not one expert in aging. Citing one of panel speakers, she continued, “’Representation really matters,’ said geriatrician Louise Aronson, M.D., MFA, professor of medicine at UCSF and author of the [2020 Pulitzer Prize Finalist], Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine and Reimagining Life.” Speaking on the Nov. 11 panel, titled “Election Aftermath: Improving Care for Elders, the Path Ahead,” Aronson stressed, “It’s not just that there are two pediatricians and 11 adult specialists on the Biden COVID task force and zero people who specialize in aging.”
Although Biden’s COVID-19 team does include such big-name medical advisers as Atul Gawande, Zeke Emmanuel and Vivek Murthy, wrote Seegert, none are geriatricians or gerontologists ”intimately familiar with the biological, psychological, or social effects of aging as a gerontologist like Aronson, a researcher like Yale’s Becca Levy, Ph.D., or professionals who view public health through an aging lens, such as Columbia University’s Linda Fried, M.D. (who also happens to be an epidemiologist).” Seegert’s piece raises important questions for reporters to ask and includes substantial resources, such the enrollment level of elders on phase 3 clinical trials.
*** In “‘Work’ Isn’t a Four-Letter Word for Older Americans,” by Kerry Hannon, Market Watch, (Nov. 4, 2020), wrote, “Even for those who have saved adequately for retirement, and most Americans haven’t, work is a financial safety net. Vast unemployment has crushed American workers, and those who are over 55 face additional obstacles to landing a new job.”
During the pandemic, she explained, “The average duration of unemployment for older workers is longer than those faced by younger cohorts. The number of long-term unemployed job seekers out of work for more than 27 weeks and still job-hunting, soared to 26.4% in September from 14% in August for those 55 and older, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s higher than for the total workforce, where long-term unemployed job seekers rose to 18.2% from 11.3%.”
One of the panelists was Richard W. Johnson, Urban Institute Senior Fellow and director of its Program on Retirement Policy, who spoke on the “Crisis for Older Workers: COVID Layoffs and Beyond.” Johnson said that “as unemployment rates fell later in 2020, the unemployment gap between older and younger workers narrowed, but rates at ages 65-plus remained unusually high. And when older workers land new jobs, historically, it’s often at a lower wage than their previous job.”
She quoted Johnson: “Older workers pay taxes, engage in productive activities, delay receipt of retirement transfers. That helps grow the economy, and improves the fiscal outlook. And when workers earn more, over their lifetimes, by delaying retirement that raises their future earnings base for Social Security and pensions. Plus, workers can save more for retirement.”
Further, said Hannon, “Couple that financial insecurity with the ageism that creates a deep chasm for all generations now and in the future, who want, or need to, stay on the job past age 65, and it’s bleak. Ageism is deeply rooted in the workplace. Covid-related early retirements stemming from layoffs are rolling out rapidly. The dearth of job opportunities and sluggish hiring for those over 50 by employers is noteworthy. That’s a slippery slope. We’re on the cusp of a soaring scenario of elder poverty if we can’t make some big changes in our workplace culture.”
More hopefully, she noted, “Remote jobs are here to stay. The genie is out of the bottle. Employers have found it works in terms of productivity and cost-savings. And for older workers, not being ‘present’ in the workplace can go a long way to combating the ageism that subtly percolates up from hiring managers judging a book by its cover and labeling you old because your hair has some gray, and your skin is not as smooth and taut as a younger co-worker. Instead, you’re judged on your performance. And for those workers with health issues that can impact mobility, not having a commute to the office can be a gift of time and open the door for jobs.”
On the downside, Hannon qualified, “These tend to be white-collar jobs, and moving forward, I suspect many will be contract positions which let employers off the hook for paying benefits like health care and providing access to employer-provided retirement plans, which is not such a good thing.” (GBONews adds that the passage of California’s Proposition 22, on Nov. 3, only ostensibly exempts employers of Über and Lyft drivers and other gig workers from state employment rules, such as for pay levels and working conditions. The new law will likely serve as a precedent for other fields.)
3. PANEL LINKS TO THE FUTURE OF OUR AGING
*** Election & Aging Aftermath: 7 Journalists in Aging Fellowship Zooms Online: Following, with a grudging “Thanks a lot” to COVID-19, we’re able to share with GBONews readers complete recordings of the expert panel sessions held just before and after the Nov. 3 election for this year’s Journalists in Aging Fellows Program.
The webinars focus on such vital issues in aging as the spreading demographic diversity of those 65-plus across the nation, confronting ageism in the COVID-triggered “OK, Boomer” backlash, challenges for older workers and pandemic impacts on elders’ health and end-of-life crises.
A Covid complication in our timing of the panels was that GSA had decided to hold its 75th conclave from Nov. 4-7, that is, during election week. Usually, we gather the Fellows only for the initial day of issue-orientated talks the day before the full GSA conference gets underway. Then the reporters attend symposia and lectures to research their proposed in-depth story projects. But, yikes!, what could we do the week of the most explosive – and deadline driven election — in recent history? Enter the age of the webinar.
We decided to hold initial sessions over two days the week prior to the election, Oct. 28 and 29. During conference week, the 15 New Fellows (find a full list in the October 2020 issue of GBONews) plus this year’s 10 Continuing Fellows (past participants invited to return) were free to tune in to any of the 300 GSA professional symposia and hundreds of other papers and research poster sessions that might be relevant to their story subjects. Having those available as recordings was also a relief. They have until the end of this year to access those, and then follow up with some of the presenters for interviews.
Here is the roster of Zoom sessions and their speakers., Each runs 90 minutes. Reporters are welcome to quote any of them, and we’ll be glad to provide you contacts for follow-up interviews. Just drop me a line at pfkleyman@gmail.org.
*** “What the COVID-19 Response Foretells for Pandemics in Aging America”
Moderator: Liz Seegert, Co-Director, Journalists in Aging Fellows Program; Program Coordinator, Journalists Network on Generations; Editor, Core Topic section on “Aging,” Association of Health Care Journalists.
Speakers:
- Toni Miles, MD, PhD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Georgia; author of Health Care Reform and Disparities: History, Hype, and Hope (2012)
- Joanne Lynn, MD, MA, MS, Director, Program to Improve Eldercare, Altarum Institute; Professor, George Washington School of Medicine;
- Lisa Brown, PhD, ABPP, Professor, Palo Alto University; Adjunct Clinical Stanford University School of Medicine; President, Division 20 Adult Development and Aging at the American Psychological Association; Director of the Trauma Program in the Peace and Human Rights Lab.
*** “America’s Demographic Tomorrow: Diversity Across Our Aging Nation”
Moderator: Paul Kleyman, National Coordinator, Journalists Network on Generations; Senior Advisor, Journalists in Aging Fellows Program.
Speakers:
- Steven P. Wallace, PhD, Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health; Associate Director, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research; Director, Coordinating Center for the NIA-funded Resource Centers on Minority Aging;
- Jacqueline L. Angel, PhD, FGSA, Professor of Public Affairs, LBJ School of Public Affairs and Sociology, University of Texas, Austin; Co-Author, The Politics of a Majority-Minority Nation: Aging, Diversity, and Immigration;
- Tamara A. Baker, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Medicine; Editor-in- Chief, Ethnicity & Health.
*** “Crisis for Older Workers: COVID Layoffs and Beyond”
Moderator: Kerry Hannon, author, columnist and contributor for The New York Times, MarketWatch, Forbes and others
Speakers:
- Richard W. Johnson, PhD, Urban Institute Senior Fellow and Director, Program on Retirement Policy;
- Karyne Jones, President and CEO, National Caucus and Center on Black Aging, Inc.;
- Jennifer M. Schramm, MPhil, GPHR, SHRM-SCP, AARP Public Policy Institute Senior Strategic Policy Advisor, Labor.
*** “ELECTION AFTERMATH: Social Security and Other Policy Stories on Income Security”
Moderator: Chris Farrell, author, Marketplace Economics Correspondent, contributor to the New York Times, PBS Next Avenue and others.
Speakers:
- Robert “Bob” Blancato, President, Matz, Blancato & Associates; Executive Director, National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs; National Coordinator of the Elder Justice Coalition;
- Brian W. Lindberg, MMHS, Executive Director, Consumer Coalition for Quality Health Care, former Staff Director, House Select Committee on Aging’s Subcommittee on Housing and Consumer Interests, and staff member, Senate Special Committee on Aging;
- Jeanette Takamura, PhD, Dean Emerita, Columbia U School of Social Work; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Aging (1997-2001);
- Fernando Torres-Gil, PhD, UCLA, Professor, Social Welfare and Public Policy; Director, Center for Policy Research in Aging; Adjunct Professor of Gerontology, USC; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Aging (1993-1997);
*** “ELECTION AFTERMATH: Improving Care for Elders, the Path Ahead”
Moderator: Judith Graham, “Navigating Aging” Columnist for Kaiser Health News.
Speakers:
- Jean Accius, PhD, Senior Vice President, AARP Global Thought Leadership; Member, Vanguard group at Stanford University Graduate School of Business Corporate Innovation;
- Louise Aronson, MD, MFA, Professor, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine; author, Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life (2020 Pulitzer Prize Finalist);
- Jennie Chin Hansen, RN, MS, FAAN, Stakeholder, California’s Department of Health and Human Services Developing MasterPlan for Aging; Board Chair, SCAN Foundation; Past President, AARP.
*** “Elder Justice & Ageism: Beating the ‘OK, Boomer’ Backlash”
Moderator: Rich Eisenberg, Managing Editor, PBS Next Avenue.
Speakers:
- Lisa Nerenberg, MSW, MPH, Executive Director, California Elder Justice Coalition; author, Elder Justice, Ageism & Elder Abuse (Springer 2020);
- Ashton Applewhite, Author, This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism and founder www.thischairrocks.com blog; contributor, Harper’s, the Guardian, New York Times and others;
- Charles A. Emlet, PhD, MSW, ACSW, Professor of Social Work, University of Washington, Tacoma; co-author, HIV/AIDS and Older Adults: Challenges for Individuals, Families and Communities; co-investigator, National Health, Aging, Sexuality and Gender Study.
*** “The Palliative Care Prescription: Elders & COVID-19 at Life’s End”
Moderator: JoAnn Mar, Producer, EndofLifeRadio.org; Reporter/Announcer, KALW Public Radio, San Francisco.
Speakers:
- Vyjeyanthi (VJ) Periyakoil, MD, Director, Stanford Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine Fellowship Program; Associate Director, Palliative Care Services, VA Palo Alto Health Care System; C American Geriatrics Society, Ethnogeriatrics Committee; Op-Ed Contributor, New York Times;
- Susan Enguidanos, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Gerontology, Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology;
- Davis Baird, MA, Policy and Advocacy Manager, Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC); former Program Manager, National Association of Area Agencies on Aging.
We are grateful to the following foundations for funding for this year’s Journalists in Aging Fellows Program: The Silver Century Foundation, The RRF Foundation; The Commonwealth Fund; The John A. Hartford Foundation; and the Gannett Foundation.
4. EYES ON THE PRIZE
Ten 2020 Journalists in Aging Continuing Fellows
This year’s roster of 15 New Fellows from the mainstream and ethnic media appeared in the October issue of GBONews. Also selected were 10 Continuing Fellows, past participants invited to join in the Zoom fun.
They include:
Hassan Abbas, writer, Arab American News, Dearborn, Mich.;
Rodney A. Brooks, retirement columnist, USA News & World Report and others;
Kevyn Burger, contributor, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, PBS Next Avenue and others;
Laura Castañeda, contributor, news outlets for general and Hispanic audiences, such as NBC/Latino; Professor, Annenberg School of Journalism, University of Southern California;
Kate Ferguson, Editor-in-Chief, Real Health Magazine;
Elizabeth Fite, Health Reporter, Chattanooga Times Free Press;
Judith (Judi) L. Kanne, RN, contributor, Atlanta Senior Life and others;
Cynthia McCormick, Reporter, Cape Cod (Mass.) Times;
Luanne Rife, Senior Writer, Roanoke (Va.) Times;
Viji Sundaram, contributor, India-West and others.
We especially thank Rodney Brooks, who also sat in as one of this year’s veteran age-beat reporters brainstorming with the New Fellows about angles and sources for their proposed in-depth story project. Also, we’re grateful to Dr. Jacqueline Angel, noted above; fellowship program co-founder Linda Harootyan; and University of Texas, Austin, gerontologist Namkee Choi, PhD., for contributing their time and expertise as advisors to this year’s fellows.
A continuously updated list of stories from the fellows and the hundreds of participating news organizations is available online. For information about the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program, contact its Co-Directors Todd Kluss, GSA’s Director of Communications/Editor-in-Chief, Gerontology News: tkluss@geron.org; 202-587-2839, or Liz Seegert: www.lizseegert.com; 718-229-5730 (work) or 516-225-9636 (mobile).
The Journalists Network on Generations (JNG), founded in 1993, publishes Generations Beat Online News (GBONews.org). JNG provides information and networking opportunities for journalists covering generational issues, but not those representing services, products or lobbying agendas. Copyright 2020 JNG. For more information contact GBO Editor Paul Kleyman.
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