You might be wondering why it is that older adults are most likely to be at risk if they get COVID-19. It’s largely about our immune systems. Veronique Greenwood reports for The New York Times on how our immune systems lose immune cells as we age, causing greater inflammation.
With the novel coronavirus, the greatest worry is for people over 80. They are at literally hundreds of times’ greater risk of dying from COVID-19 than younger people. Part of the reason is that they tend to have more health conditions, so their systems are compromised and vulnerable.
People over 80 are also at particular risk because of how our immune system evolves as it ages. We need our immune systems to trigger inflammation that harms or weakens the virus, but not to overreact. Our immune system can also address cells in our body that are damaged.
But, as we age, our immune system is not able to do the work it once did, Instead, it is in a chronic alert state, overreacting. In addition, older cells appear to evolve as we age, and they release inflammatory substances, which can be harmful.
Older adults are more likely to be frail as a result of these older cells that raise levels of immune proteins. Even 65-year olds who are healthy and not frail usually have higher immune protein levels.
As Greenwood explains it, older people’s cells are in “inflammatory chaos,” making it harder to fight off a virus. Their immune systems are not likely to react to the virus as they would have when they were younger. Instead, too many immune messengers are activated, which can cause organ failure.
So, how effective will a COVID-19 vaccine be for older people? Some people believe that vaccines do not always work as well for older people as for younger people because older people’s immune systems do not react as they once did. There is reason for concern that the COVID-19 vaccine will not work as well for older people.
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