The latest COVID-19 data reveal that vaccines are not enough to protect many older adults from serious illness if they have the virus. Fenit Nirappil and Dan Keating report for The Washington Post that a higher proportion of vaccinated older adults are dying. Apparently, over time, COVID-19 vaccines do not work as well as you might hope; to minimize risk, older adults need booster shots.
In January and February, more than four in ten people who died of COVID-19 were vaccinated. Most of them had not received a booster shot. Last September, just 23 percent of people who died of COVID-19 were vaccinated.
Researchers who analyzed the data found no meaningful difference between people who had had the Pfizer vaccine and people who had had the Moderna vaccine. For both, it appears that the vaccine’s full protection lasts for about three months after the second vaccine. That said, one CDC expert said that Moderna appears to offer a somewhat more effective vaccine against hospitalization than Pfizer.
For people over 65, Moderna is 87 percent effective against hospitalization versus Pfizer, which is 77 percent effective. And, the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine appears to increase over time.
Some people are mixing up the types of vaccines they receive. But, they do so at their own risk. There is no data on whether that is either safe or effective.
Note: People who are unvaccinated are most likely to die from COVID-19. In fact they have a 20 times greater likelihood of dying from a COVID-19 infection than people who are vaccinated and boosted. Still, two-thirds of deaths from the omicron variant of COVID-19 were people over 75. Most of those deaths, among the vaccinated, were people who had not gotten a booster shot.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Covid-19 Roundup: What you should know
- Roundup: 2022 Medicare benefits and more
- Roundup: Your doctors and your health
- Roundup: Planning for life’s curve balls
- Roundup: Caregiving
