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medical community. Therefore, in the midst of fear and anxiety, there is great pressure on healthcare professionals to be constantly updated on the release of new studies, as well as to prescribe the experimental treatments for their patients, in spite of insufficient high-quality evidence (González-Padilla and Tortolero-Blanco, 2020). The extent of mental health vulnerability seems to vary amongst different populations within the healthcare staff. It has been reported that young women are at higher risk for adverse psychological repercussions than men (El-Hage et al., 2020; Lai et al., 2020). Moreover, nurses are also more likely to be affected than physicians (El-Hage et al., 2020; Lai et al., 2020; Tsamakis et al., 2020). Interestingly, one study observed that non-frontline nurses were more prone to emotional impact than the frontline group, which seems to be due to their greater working experience and psychological preparation (Ghaffari et al., 2020). Although results from other researches evidenced the opposite (Lai et al., 2020), it brings attention to the importance of providing psychological preparation and assistance to healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 outbreak. Elderly As part of an important risk group for COVID-19, the elderly are currently being instructed to remain at home and self-isolate (Armitage and Nellums, 2020). Nonetheless, it has been demonstrated that older adults are at higher risk for anxiety and depression when put in situations of social disconnection (Armitage and Nellums, 2020; Conejero et al., 2020). To those who do not have close family or friends and to those whose only social contact is out of the home, these can be particularly dawning times. Many individuals within this group rely solely on community centers, places of worship, voluntary work and social care, activities which have been severely restrained by the COVID-19 outbreak (Armitage and Nellums, 2020). In addition, many older individuals have smaller access and/or literacy to social networks, which prevents them from maintaining virtual connection with others (Mesa Vieira et al., 2020). Therefore, the psychological and emotional impact is tremendous. The social disconnection causes and aggravates loneliness, neglect, depression and anxiety, all of which can produce long-term health consequences (Banerjee, 2020; Bavel et al., 2020). Moreover, the context of this pandemic might increase suicide behavior amongst older adults. As an example, after the SARS epidemic in 2003, suicide rates among elderly individuals were increased by 30% (Holmes et al., 2020). The solitude in the elderly has also been suggested to be accompanied by biological modifications that make this group more vulnerable to commit suicide, which includes the elevation of inflammatory markers and expansion of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (Conejero et al., 2020). Furthermore, it has also been suggested that social disconnection may worsen neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (Conejero et al., 2020; Plagg et al., 2020). An additional topic of discussion that further elucidates the emotional impact of the pandemic among the elderly is the phenomenon of “ageism”. In the early phases of the COVID-19 outbreak, the disease had been predominantly portrayed as an illness that affects almost exclusively the older adults (Ayalon, 2020). At present, this stereotype has been proven erroneous, as age itself is not a reliable criterion to predict the health impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection (Ayalon, 2020). Notwithstanding,
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