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Nearly every single American over the age of 65 has earned their first covid vaccines. But that immunity is waning, and this time the government is providing far less for new vaccines.
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By Emily Baumgaertner
PLEASANT HILL, Calif. – Bonnie Ronk is a public fitness matriarch at the Mt. Diablo Senior Center in this liberal Northern California suburb.
When Mrs. Ronk, a great-grandmother whose red walker wears a “The Boss” sticker, tells her classmates to put the mask on their nose, they comply. When he won the two doses of the Covid vaccine and a booster and told others to do the same, they did.
But even Ms Ronk, 79, has not won the latest Covid booster, which has been updated to protect against the Omicron variant and has been available since September. She said she didn’t know.
In the United States, where about 94% of people over the age of 65 received their first covid vaccines, only 36% received the updated vaccine, known as bivalent booster, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The elders presented a variety of explanations: they did not know, could not locate it or were not convinced of its value.
As the pandemic enters its third winter and covid hospitalizations and deaths again, medical experts fear there is no effective plan to update vaccines for the most vulnerable Americans. Two years ago, when covid vaccines were first introduced, the federal government sent groups to thousands of nursing homes and network centers to vaccinate the elderly, reducing the devastation of the virus.
But so far this fall, the White House has only awarded grants to networking organizations to get shot in the arms of seniors, without the transparent messaging strategy or logistics they most want, many caregivers and nursing home leaders said in interviews.
“Government and philanthropy turn out to be nonexistent,” said Debbie Toth, executive director of the nonprofit Choice in Aging, which helped bring thousands of initial vaccines to adult care services and housing complexes in the East Bay of California in early 2021.
The decline in the immunity of the elderly has largely reshaped the covid pandemic in the United States from a risk for the unvaccinated to a risk for the elderly, many of whom were once well protected. People over the age of 70 are admitted to a hospital. with Covid at a rate 4 times higher than that of the general population.
The most recent death counts across age showed that nearly 90% of covid deaths were in other people over the age of 65.
“The evidence is clear: even though you were vaccinated two years ago, your immunity has weakened. But the other people who want to hear this to the fullest extent haven’t,” said Dr. Michael Wasserman, a geriatrician and public policy chair for the California Long-Term Care Medicine Association. “When you mix pandemic fatigue with no genuine government plan, what we have is a big storm. “
The Biden administration’s Covid plan for the winter includes $125 million in grants to two network organizations, USAging and The National Council on Aging, for vaccination systems for older Americans, a far less straightforward technique than when it sent CVS and Walgreens staff to care facilities after the first shots were authorized. The plan also includes letters to governors encouraging more nursing home shootings and a television advertising crusade targeting older people from racial and ethnic minority groups.
Mary Wall, staff leader of the White House Covid Response Team, said management is doing what it can with the limited resources available, but said this time management is counting on states to shoulder more of the burden.
“We are asking you directly, please come by and organize clinics on site,” he said.
He called the grants a “good start,” but under pressure that a more physically powerful monetary investment would require the cooperation of Congress, which rejected President Biden’s request for another $10 billion to fund physical activity, the vast majority of which for the coronavirus. answer.
“Actually,” he said, “it’s not something we’ve gotten more money for, for a while, despite repeated requests in Congress. We have tried to look with wonderful sobriety at our resources.
Epidemiologists agree that, of all the pillars of a national response, vaccination is one of the most valuable. They estimate that covid shocks prevented 650,000 hospitalizations and 300,000 deaths among seniors and Medicare beneficiaries in 2021 alone.
But the virus has since evolved and the original vaccine formulation no longer matches circulating variants, a danger to older adults with weakened immune systems and underlying diseases such as core disease and diabetes.
Even the bivalent vaccine has limited ability to save you from infections caused by newer variants of Omicron, but it is very effective in saving you from serious illness and death. According to the data, other people over the age of 50 who gained boosters took part as most likely to die from the virus as those who gained only one booster.
Dr. Sabine von Preyss-Friedman, a geriatrics specialist and chief medical officer at Avalon Health Care Group, said the apathy of some older people is a misconception about the vaccine’s goal.
“People think, ‘I got the shot and I still have covid, so what’s the point?’
As part of the federal push, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also added a vaccine record to its 1-800-MEDICARE line and emailed newsletter recipients “for percentage data on updated vaccines, adding when and how. “to get them. “
But a recent survey through the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank, found that 40 percent of others over 65 said they heard little or nothing about the new recall. don’t have a computer, and more than a portion haven’t used email or in the past month.
Contra Costa, East Bay County, where the Mt. Diablo Center has experienced the politicization that has caused many American communities to oppose public fitness measures. redesigned for Covid testing while driving.
The signs in the hallway inspire six feet away. The middle mascot is a stuffed pig with a rainbow cape dressed in a miniature mask. “Not all heroes wear capes,” reads one sign, “but they wear masks. “
However, even in this facility, where one hundred percent of participants won their initial vaccinations, only 40% gained the bivalent booster. At Pleasant Hill Post Acute, 4 miles south, every resident earned the original photographs, but only one in five are now up to date. In Vacaville Convalescent and Rehab, just north of the population, only about 90% of the population has been vaccinated, but 13% are up to date. Seven citizens there tested positive for covid last week.
Ms. Ronk suffers from a chronic inflammatory lung condition that puts her at risk of severe covid. He said he liked to stay “as healthy as possible,” with country music blaring as he exercised downtown, plastic water bottles like dumbbells.
She would have been “very pleased to get it,” Ronk said of the bivalent retirement, if she had known.
Alexandr Makedonsky, 84, a former denture technician who considers himself “very pro-science,” said he was seeking ahead of time the initial circular of covid vaccines and two boosters after a friend was hospitalized with the virus. it was better suited to Omicron.
Part of the problem, according to Alex Stoia, a nurse at the center, is that eligibility criteria for the new vaccine weren’t straightforward.
“I can’t tell you how many other people asked if they had to wait any longer for the bivalent because they had just won another reminder in September and we didn’t know what to tell them,” he said. “Even the other people who begged me couldn’t perceive the recommendations. “
Logistics is also a big challenge. Ms. Stoia, who manages the care of homebound seniors, said it was almost unlikely to take them to vaccination clinics: they might not hear the ringing of the phone; there is no one to help them dress; It’s too bloodless to wait for the van on the sidewalk, and when it arrives, the electric wheelchair doesn’t fit.
In Los Angeles County, where about 500,000 citizens are confined to their homes, the public fitness branch said it sent only 8 nurses to carry out the home vaccination day.
“They want to realize that you can’t just tell other people to get vaccinated, you have to carry the vaccine on your arm,” Toth said. “And for me, this last mile is the hardest. “
For many public fitness experts, the hardest-to-teach seniors are those who doubt the price of the new vaccine. New insights from the Kaiser Family Foundation survey showed that about one-third of adults over 65 who won the original Covid vaccine series still didn’t get a booster said they didn’t believe they wanted it, and a percentage said they didn’t want it. I don’t think its benefits were price.
Dr. Noah Marco, lead medical officer for the Los Angeles Jewish Health elder care settlement, said he “remains amazed” that the federal government hasn’t brought in marketing experts to “create up-to-date messages that work. “
“Coca-Cola has spent billions of dollars over decades convincing us that we want to buy and drink sparkling water containing sugar and caramel. Come on, isn’t there anyone to lend us a hand here?” says Dr. Marco.
At Mount Diablo, the 51 older adults who have not yet obtained the updated vaccine can use a new field. Two friends, Tsilya Tankover, 95, and Faina Gutkin, 77, have obtained their first vaccines, but are among those who reject the booster fighting Omicron.
“I feel passod,” Ms. Gutkin said, pushing the cabbage vegetables on her plate as she shared her goal of passing the tanpass dance. “Why do I want it? I’m still waiting for them to tell me. “
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