After listening to the Democratic presidential debate last night, my mind was in a muddle. I couldn’t really tell what message  Biden and Sanders were trying to convey.  It  sounded like a couple of angry old guys in a shouting contest.  But just before we went to bed, I heard on the news that someone said all people over age sixty five should stay home during this coronavirus outbreak.   I’ll find out today who said that, but it has me wondering: Is  age sixty five the new eighty?

Most sixty-five year olds I know are pretty healthy.  Thanks to modern healthcare, the fitness movement, and plant based diets,  these newly retired folks are In much better shape than our parents were. It seems like a bit of overkill to me.   Retirees are the ones people fall back on to help out in a crisis—whether it’s babysitting,emergency housing , or other calamities that befall working people.

The recommendation is mostly based on the fact that seniors are most apt to die if they get sick with the coronavirus.  But there’s a slight flaw in that statistic.  It’s mostly the elderly who live in crowded nursing homes  who have died.  They don’t get out at all.  They’re stuck in stuffy, stinky, crowded places where staffers are too busy to wash their hands as often as they should. And the air doesn’t move very fast in those little rooms.

Naturally, anyone who’s at risk should stay at home during the coronavirus outbreak.   But not everyone over age sixty-five has heart disease,  kidney failure, diabetes, or other serious health problems.

So what’s a healthy senior to do?  Should we wear hats to disguise gray hair, and sunglasses to hide our wrinkles. Shall we be arrested for going to the grocery store for a bottle of milk? Is sixty five really the new eighty?

And by the way.  What were those two old politicians doing out in public last night?  Both Biden and Sanders are over sixty five.