Lifestyle

Like many of us, Jen Teves can ride out the current pandemic in relative comfort, ordering takeout and having groceries delivered. But she knows that’s not the case for millions of people in her home country.

Jen, who works on Best Buy’s customer experience team, grew up in a small agricultural town in the Philippines. COVID-19 has the potential to devastate her home country, where one in five people live on less than $2 a day.

“If America and Europe are struggling, how much worse is it in a country like mine,” Jen said.

Long before news of the coronavirus emerged in late 2019, researchers have been studying the effects of isolation on older people.

Now, as the world responds with unprecedented speed to the threat of COVID-19, the urgency of helping everybody stay in touch is an urgent priority – especially for vulnerable seniors and the newly telecommuting, homeschooling, stressed sandwich generation, who coordinates their care (now from a distance).

Physical social distancing is a critical precaution to “flatten the curve.”