Older Adults at more Risk for Severe Mutating Infections

Older Adults at more Risk for Severe Mutating Infections

The coronavirus vaccines are still working as intended, even in the era of the dangerous mutating delta variant. As a matter of fact, unvaccinated individuals are more than 10 times as likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 and more than 10 times as likely to die from the disease as vaccinated people, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Throughout the pandemic, older adults have been more likely to suffer from COVID complications than their younger peers, and experts say the same reasons that made them more susceptible from the get-go could be causing them to bear the burden of severe breakthrough cases, although research is ongoing. Older adults also have a less robust immune system than younger people, and the protection afforded by the vaccines may wane faster for them because of it

Who is at highest risk?

A large study published in the British Medical Journal identified populations in the U.K. at greatest risk for hospitalization or death from COVID-19, post-vaccination. They include:

• Individuals who are immunosuppressed from chemotherapy, a recent bone marrow transplant or solid organ transplant, or HIV/AIDS
• People with neurological disorders, including dementia and Parkinson’s
• Nursing home residents
• People with chronic conditions, including Down’s syndrome, kidney disease, sickle cell disease and liver cirrhosis

Being older and having a chronic health condition such as heart or lung diabetes, diabetes or obesity could all become factors that add to the severity of COVID.