There are signs that, once again, COVID is disproportionately afflicting older people. It’s like 2020 all over again. And the seniors in one country are especially at risk: China.
that in many U.S. states, including New York and California, the rate of COVID hospitalizations for seniors “now exceeds the BA.5, BA.2 and Delta waves.”
In other words, the increase in COVID hospitalizations in the elderly could be an illusion, Klausner told The Daily Beast. “Counting any hospitalized patient with a positive COVID test as a ‘COVID hospitalization’ is just plain wrong and bad epidemiology.” In most countries, seniors got vaccinated enthusiastically once high-quality vaccines first became available in late 2020. In the U.S.,got their prime doses—in most cases, two doses of messenger-RNA vaccine—compared to an overall vaccination rate of 69 percent for all Americans. The problem is that protection from vaccines wanes over time. And for many American seniors, it’s been nearly two years since they got jabbed.
Now more older people are taking off their masks and going out. The problem is, they’re mixing with younger people who have natural antibodies. COVID is still everywhere, but it’s mostly infecting people without strong natural immunity. “This immune vulnerability of the older populations makes them more susceptible to getting infected compared to the rest of the population,” Michael said.
China is the only big country that makes the U.S. look good when it comes to protecting its seniors from COVID. As bad as natural immunity and booster uptake are for older Americans, they’re much worse for older Chinese. A fifth of Chinese over 80 years old are totally unvaccinated. Another 10 percent never finished their two-dose prime vaccination.
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