2021 should be an improvement over 2020 for most seniors.

COVID-19 should come under control and the world may return to normal.

Whether they were locked down in assisted living centers or isolated at home and receiving senior home care services, 2020 was hard on seniors. Not only were lives at risk from coronavirus, but many were also unable to gather with family and friends.

As the New Year kicks off, seniors, like all Americans, look forward to better times and a return to normalcy. Here are five events in 2021 for seniors to look forward to:

COVID-19 Vaccines

The pandemic took a heavy toll on seniors. America's fastest-growing age demographic is 65 and older. But the risks from COVID-19 increase with age, and those 65 and older represented a disproportionate share of the most severe COVID-19 cases.

However, pharmaceutical companies have developed three vaccines. These vaccines provide a real opportunity to end the pandemic and help life return to normal.

The three vaccines are:

Oxford-Astrazeneca: This vaccine, like traditional vaccines, uses an inactive coronavirus to trigger an immune response. This immune response protects about 70% of patients from infection and reduces the severity of COVID-19 in those who do get infected. This vaccine is administered in two doses one month apart.
Pfizer-BioNTech: This vaccine uses a new technology called mRNA to instruct your immune cells to produce a "spike protein." This spike protein mimics the coronavirus and triggers an immune response that protects the body from infection 95% of the time. This vaccine is administered in two doses three weeks apart.
Moderna: This vaccine also uses mRNA. During trials, this vaccine performed almost as well as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by protecting 94% of test subjects. This vaccine requires two doses four weeks apart.

These vaccines have been prioritized for health care workers and seniors. This means that within the first few months of 2021, seniors can look forward to receiving the vaccine and being protected from this virus once and for all. Even after receiving the vaccine, however, seniors should still follow COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, including wearing a face mask in public.

In-Person Visits

Many seniors have opted for senior home care services during the pandemic. This choice has many advantages over a residential facility. Some of the advantages include:

Residential facilities became vectors for transmission, with residents infecting each other.
Assisted living centers have many employees. Employees got infected outside the facility, then brought it into the facility to infect residents.
Before they went into lockdown, many assisted living centers allowed outside visitors who also brought the virus into the facility.

As a result of community spread in residential facilities, seniors could do everything right but still catch COVID-19. Staying at home and opting for senior home care services drastically reduced the risk of exposure to COVID-19.

However, the isolation of senior home care services came with a price. Seniors at home missed out on in-person visits and were limited to electronic visits with friends and relatives.

All of this can change in 2021. As seniors and their families receive vaccines, in-person visits can resume. Equally importantly, out-of-state friends and relatives will be able to travel for visits this year. In-person visits will be a huge boost for seniors since socialization is critical for both mental and emotional health.

New Movies

Hollywood shut down during the pandemic and most of the new TV programs and movies have been animated since work could continue on those movies. In the meantime, seniors who like to watch TV and movies on cable and streaming services have been limited to reruns for the past year.

As 2021 dawns, the dam will break and new movies will finally be released. Whether you are a James Bond fan or want to see the newest superhero movie, this year will finally see some new movies.

Sports

The major sports leagues have tried to continue to play sports. But many games have been postponed or canceled due to the virus. And the 2020 Olympics was delayed by an entire year to 2021.

But with vaccines on the horizon, sports will return to normal. This year you should be able to see packed stands and cheering crowds as you enjoy your favorite sports programs. More importantly, you should be able to watch a real season of sports after the shortened seasons of 2020.

2020 was a truly awful year for most seniors. 2021 is shaping up to be a better year. Life will likely begin its return to normal and you will once again enjoy life's little joys. Visiting with family, shopping without a mask, and being able to watch new movies or your favorite sporting event will happen in 2021. Most importantly, the stress of 2020 will end.