A national study shows that certain factors can help identify older Americans who are at highest risk of falling victim to financial scams, according to the Marketplace Morning Report . Physical and mental health, and the health of relationships, are key predictors of older persons' self-reported feelings of personal financial vulnerability. "We're seeing a lot of relationship strain as people get older due to finances," said Wayne State University's Peter Lichtenberg. "And also just their psychological vulnerability around finances: anxiety, depression, memory problems." Separate research determined that a financial exploitation survey evaluating one's financial decision-making can help indicate how susceptible one might be to various scams. The poll formulated from these findings is freely available on Lichtenberg's website. The site offers helpful resources in addition to the survey, as well as one-on-one coaching to help them remedy their financial problems.

National Public Radio reports that nearly 300,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the United States on Saturday, while the total death toll surpassed 350,000 the same day, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard. Although many Americans hope that the COVID-19 vaccines will help contain the pandemic, government forecasts for how many people should have been vaccinated thus far are coming up short. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that more than 4.2 million people had received the initial vaccination dose as of Saturday — far below the government's target of immunizing 20 million Americans by the end of December. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who has defended the federal government's actions over the discrepancy, responded to Sen. Mitt Romney's (R-Utah) assertion that it failed to develop a comprehensive vaccination strategy. He stated, "We did deliver on 20 million doses delivered, but you're always going to have more doses allocated versus delivered — delivered versus shots in arms." Kaiser Health News Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal said the absence of central coordination has led to a lack of equitable vaccine rollouts across the country. "It's a very disorganized kind of slow walk and it really depends where you live and, in some places, who you know. That is not how a national vaccine campaign should be carried out," she explained.

Local 10 News reports that scientists have developed a non-invasive model for forecasting Alzheimer's disease in people with moderate cognitive impairment. The new model combines two blood tests that look for specific proteins associated with Alzheimer's. "The researchers found they could actually increase the sensitivity, increase the diagnostic ability of the blood tests much better than either one individually and it's in line with some of the spinal fluid testing we're able to do now but it's much less invasive and hopefully would be much less expensive," said Cleveland Clinic Weston neurologist Damon Salzman. He added that 50 percent to 80 percent of patients with mild cognitive impairment develop Alzheimer's, so the test could help ascertain who would be best suited for early interventions to slow progression.

Operation Warp Speed chief Moncef Slaoui said on CBS's "Face the Nation" over the weekend that U.S. health officials are considering administering two half doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to accelerate immunizations across the nation, reports CNBC . "We know that for the Moderna vaccine giving half the dose for people between the ages of 18 to 55 — two doses, half the dose, which means exactly achieving the objective of immunizing double the number of people with the doses we have — we know it induces identical immune response to the 100 microgram dose," he stated. "And therefore, we are in discussions with Moderna and with the Food and Drug Administration . . . to accelerate injecting half the volume." Slaoui made these comments in response to an inquiry about why the United States was not administering all available doses of vaccines now, even though the approved vaccines require a second round of shots to have full effect. He replied that he considered it a mistake to make a decision that was not backed by clinical trial data, echoing earlier comments from White House health adviser Anthony Fauci on NBC's "Meet the Press."

The Colorado State Laboratory said Wednesday that the first U.S, case of someone testing positive for the COVID-19 variant is a National Guard personnel working at an assisted living community in Simla, Colo., reports KDVR . A second possible variant case — also a Guardsman working at the same place — is in the same county. The variant is considered more contagious than previously identified strains, but the currently approved vaccines are believed to be effective against it. The National Guard personnel did not arrive at the community until Dec. 23. The confirmed case is quarantining at home in Elbert County, while the other possible case is isolating at a hotel in Lincoln County. Additional testing is currently underway to determine if the variant is spreading in the assisted living community, and authorities are also contact tracing to ascertain who else may have been infected.

Healthcare Finance News reports that virtual healthcare or telehealth is of vital importance to the senior U.S. population, and increasing their comfort with the format will be an industry priority for 2021. GoHealth estimates that three in five Medicare beneficiaries and seniors nearing eligibility do not know how to use video call technology, mainly because of a lack of access and education. Telehealth reimbursement had also been a sticking point before the pandemic, with stringent rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) about what is and is not reimbursable complicating entry. But CMS is now making allowances for reimbursement, and Congress is weighing permanent amendments to the payment landscape for virtual care. A survey released in May from the Alliance of Community Health Plans and the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy said 72 percent of U.S. consumers have dramatically shifted their use of traditional healthcare services, with many delaying in-person care and adopting virtual care due to the pandemic. The data also indicates a huge uptake in telehealth in Medicare especially, climbing from about 10,000 virtual visits a week to about 1.7 million — with older Americans comprising a major percentage. Suggestions for tackling the access challenge to seniors include broader broadband access and a transition from fee-for-service care delivery to value-based care models.

AARP lists 10 jobs that tend to employ the highest share of older workers that could resurge in 2021 after the pandemic, according to data from PayScale surveys. Nearly 75 percent of school bus drivers are 55 and older, but the occupation could bounce back next year as more school districts return to in-person classes in the spring and fall. As more businesses reopen, hiring for secretaries could increase, although this occupation has been shrinking overall. Office manager jobs also could rebound, as could security guard positions. Meanwhile, opportunities for office managers in freelance and contract positions are rising through the gig economy, while work for paralegals is projected to grow as the pandemic could lead to more bankruptcies, mortgage foreclosures, medical malpractice suits, and social justice lawsuits. Demand for dental hygienists, which was already gaining before the pandemic, should quickly pick up as more people are inoculated. Hiring of customer service representatives is expected to continue to grow once the crisis settles, and retail sales worker hiring also could pick up as normal business resumes at stores. Finally, as more parents go back to work, demand for nannies is expected to increase.

COVID-19 vaccination sites have been inundated with seniors and frustration is high after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis prioritized residents older than 65 to be next in line for the state's stock of immunizations, the Associated Press reports. "The COVID-19 vaccine supply is still limited," DeSantis stated at a press conference. "We don't have enough vaccine currently on hand for all 4 million-plus senior citizens in the state of Florida. We're going to get there but it's not going to happen overnight." County health departments and hospitals across Florida are rushing to deliver the vaccine to seniors. Early Wednesday morning, health officials in Lee County said all three vaccination sites had reached capacity in their third day of operation. According to the Orlando Sentinel , health officials in Orange County on Tuesday closed its online portal after generating 30,000 appointments in roughly 24 hours, while the Broward Health hospital network said it would stop scheduling vaccine appointments on the same day they started "due to overwhelming community demand." As of Tuesday, the Florida Department of Health said it had given shots to about 175,465 Floridians, mainly healthcare workers, emergency first responders, and residents of assisted care communities.

A study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology found the occurrence of dementia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to be lower in those receiving biologic or targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) than in those receiving conventional synthetic DMARDs, reports the American Journal of Managed Care . In a sample of 141,326 eligible patients with RA, the crude incident rate of dementia was 2.0 per 100 person-years for people on conventional synthetic DMARDs versus 1.3 for patients on any biological DMARD. After adjusting for age, sex, and other comorbidities, patients on biologic or targeted synthetic DMARDs had an adjusted 17 percent lower risk for dementia than those on conventional synthetic DMARDs. No significant differences were seen between the different classes of biologic or targeted synthetic DMARDs, suggesting that lower risk is possibly underlain by the overall decrease in inflammation rather than a specific mechanism of action. "Future studies need to assess the impact of the interventions, such as the treat-to-target strategy, on the incidence of dementia in patients with rheumatoid arthritis," said Sebastian Sattui at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

CNBC reports that Oxford University Professor Sir John Bell feels confident that COVID-19 vaccines could be adapted to protect against future coronavirus strains. "This is going to be a game of cat and mouse now," he admitted. The U.K. government granted emergency use authorization for Oxford and AstraZeneca's vaccine on Wednesday, after issuing limited clearance to Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine. Studies are underway to ascertain officially whether the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine protects against the new strain widely circulating in Britain. "We think they probably can, but we just want to be absolutely sure," Bell said. He added that "we're going to have lots of examples of people who have had the vaccine who get exposed to the virus, and we'll be able to tell pretty quickly about whether the vaccine is indeed protective against that strain." Meanwhile, a separate variant found in South Africa has gained notice, while officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it may also be circulating in America. "If we have to make new vaccines, we can make them now that we've done the initial work," Bell stated.