The COVID-19 Vaccine Effort Is Protecting Older People, Growing Evidence Suggests

Evidence is building that the U.S. vaccine effort is bearing fruit, helping to protect older adults from COVID-19, reports the Wall Street Journal . Hospitalizations and deaths among seniors are dropping, while fatality rates at nursing communities have plunged. Seven-day averages for newly reported deaths have again slipped below 1,000 for the first time in over four months. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said more than 70 percent of Americans 65 and older had received at least one vaccine dose by Wednesday, versus nearly 26 percent of the general population; close to 44 percent of people 65 and up are fully vaccinated. "We're seeing less severe disease in the highest risk population, that's probably in large part due to the vaccine," said infectious-disease doctor James Lawler at the University of Nebraska Medical Center's Global Center for Health Security. The vaccines seem to be affecting mortality rates for those 85 and over, the oldest group tracked by the CDC. Prior to the vaccine push, nursing-community residents represented nearly a third of all weekly U.S. COVID-19 deaths on average, but more recent data indicates that this group encompassed far less than 10 percent of COVID-19 deaths.