For Islanders over age 65, the Covid-19 pandemic carries extra risks — not only of potentially fatal infection, but from loneliness, financial insecurity and depression. “There’s a real issue around social isolation,” said Cindra Trish, executive director of the advocacy group Healthy Aging MV.

Vineyarders need to begin encouraging more thoughtful discussion about end-of-life plans, eight rural scholars from the University of Massachusetts medical school concluded in a recent mini-study on the Island.