What do we know so far about older adults and COVID 19 vaccine?
How long does the effect of the vaccine last?
And how successful have countries been in vaccinating their older adults?
Hello and welcome to Science in 5, I'm Vismita Gupta-Smith.
We are talking to Dr. Katherine O'Brien today.
Welcome, Kate.
Let's start with what we know so far about older adults and COVID 19 vaccine.
So nice to be with you again today and to talk about vaccination in older adults.
The reason we're talking about it is that older adults are one of the groups
that are at highest risk of severe disease, hospitalization
and death if infected with the COVID-19 virus.
And so we've really prioritized those groups of people for vaccination.
And so that's one of the most important things that we all sort of align on is
why vaccination is so important in older adults.
So there's no one age, that is the overall cutoff age,
for what's an older adult.
But in general at WHO we speak about people
who are over 60 years of age.
Now, the vaccines have been really, really effective at protecting older
adults from the severe end of the disease spectrum of COVID 19.
It's the reason in large part why in countries where most older adults
are vaccinated, the serious consequences of COVID 19
infection have really plummeted.
People may still get an illness, a mild illness, but they're
not going to end up in hospital.
They're not going to end up in an intensive care unit or
with the most dreaded outcome, actually dying from COVID-19.
Kate, how long does the effect of the vaccine last in older adults?
What we know is that the vaccines that we have now and the variants
that are circulating now, there is a reduction in the performance
of vaccines, especially for mild disease and infection.
But they hold up very well over time against
severe disease, hospitalization and death.
We want to give the vaccines their very best opportunity to give
maximum protection to people who are vaccinated, and especially
to those who are at highest risk of severe disease,
which includes those over 60.
So for that reason, the booster dose is a really important part
of a complete schedule of vaccination.
So people will get much better protection if they've received their
booster dose, but especially for those people who are at highest
risk of disease. We want them to have the optimum protection,
the best protection possible.
And for that reason we've recently recommended that
a second booster dose is given to people over the age of 60 years.
Somewhere between, somewhere around six months after they've
received their last booster dose.
It can be given a little bit earlier, it can be given at four months after
the last booster dose, that's really a decision with the health care provider
about exactly when to provide it.
Kate, speak to us about how successful countries have been in vaccinating
older adults and what have been some of the challenges.
Well, globally, about 77% of older adults have been vaccinated,
but that average doesn't apply across all countries.
In low income countries, only about 34% of older adults
have been vaccinated. So there's quite some distance to go.
Now, every country has struggled with how to get older adults vaccinated.
And so we have a few things that are really been challenging.
The first is just to know who the older adults are,
the target population, as we call it.
Many people who are older adults don't have a birth certificate
and don't actually know what their age is, and certainly the
programs don't know who they are.
The second is really the acceptability of vaccines.
Are the social norms, are the customs, are the religious
beliefs supporting and aligned with an older
adult getting vaccinated.
The third thing is really around accessibility.
Older adults often have mobility issues.
So it's really important that countries are bringing
vaccines to the homes of older adults, doing house to house
vaccination or offering vaccinations in places where older adults are
otherwise carrying out their daily activities.
These may be religious centres, they may be community centres,
they may be markets or meeting places.
And then finally, is the sort of approachability, the behaviour
of the vaccinators and the frontline workers really need
to be perceived as confident and trusted sources
for older adults who don't routinely receive vaccines.
In Mozambique, the Health Age International
has distributed solar powered radios to rural older adults so
that they can receive communication and information about when
the vaccinators are going to be around and how they
should actually go and get vaccinated.
So that's just one example of some of the innovation
that many countries are deploying to assure that
the reach of vaccines gets to these older adults who
are the highest priority group.
Thank you, Kate.
That was Science in 5 today.
Until next time then, stay safe, stay healthy and stick with science.