Pfizer and BioNTech reported Wednesday their experimental COVID-19 vaccine was 95 percent effective in the final results of a key study, reports the Wall Street Journal . According to the companies, Pfizer intends to seek FDA authorization for the vaccine within days. The data found that 170 adults in the nearly 44,000-participant study developed COVID-19 with at least one symptom: 162 who received the placebo and 8 who received the vaccine. There do not appear to be any serious safety concerns. A review of data from 8,000 study participants indicated the vaccine appears to be well-tolerated. The companies reported that 3.8% of participants reported fatigue and 2% reported headaches. The companies have collected the 2 months of safety data for 19,000 study participants requested by FDA, but they are still reviewing the findings. "The study results mark an important step in this historic 8-month journey to bring forward a vaccine capable of helping to end this devastating pandemic," said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. "We continue to move at the speed of science to compile all the data collected thus far and share with regulators around the world." A spokesperson said the company is waiting to fully analyze the data and gather the requisite documentation before seeking authorization.

WTSP 10 News reports that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed bipartisan legislation from two Florida congressmen to rein in fraud targeting older Americans. Reps. Vern Buchanan (R) and Ted Deutch (D) proposed the Seniors Fraud Protection Act, partly because Florida has the highest percentage of people 60 and up in the country and Buchanan's office said the state had become "a hotbed" for crimes against seniors. Buchanan stated that "scams targeting seniors are growing at a disturbing rate and threaten more than retirement accounts — they imperil the independence and trust of an already vulnerable community." The measure targets common scams against older people, including sweepstakes and charity schemes, as well as online fraud and fake investment plans. AARP has endorsed the legislation, noting that senior-targeting scams have only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. If passed by the Senate and signed by the President, the ordinance would establish an advisory office in the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Affairs responsible for keeping consumers updated about new scams. "Passing this bill into law is a big step forward to protecting seniors and combating fraud," Buchanan declared.

A JAMA study found vitamin D, omega-3 supplements, and regular exercise appear to yield little benefit for older adults, reports United Press International . Still, vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids may help lower the risk for infections in some seniors. Research has shown that older adults who take 20 micrograms of vitamin D daily cut infections by 5 percent, although they had a 3 percent higher risk for suffering a fracture than those not taking the supplement. Meanwhile, those who take 1 gram daily of an omega-3 fatty acid supplement were 11 percent less likely to develop an infection, but were 18 percent more likely to suffer a fracture. Furthermore, seniors in a strength-training exercise program with three 30-minute sessions weekly were at a 4 percent higher risk for infection and a 6 percent higher risk for fractures. The interventions' effects on participants' blood pressure and cognitive function performance were negligible.

A mouse study in Nature Neuroscience found that the fatal chain reaction that triggers Alzheimer's disease commences much earlier than commonly assumed, reports News-Medical . This also occurs in humans, and the researchers have singled out an antibody that might prevent the chain reaction. They sifted through already known antibodies that target misfolded beta-amyloid proteins, looking for antibodies that can identify and possibly eliminate these early, overlooked seeds of beta-amyloid aggregation. The only effective antibody was aducanumab, and transgenic mice that were treated for just five days before the first protein deposits cropped up later exhibited half the typical amount of deposits in their brains. Aducanumab can recognize protein aggregates, but not individual beta-amyloid chains. The investigators hope to use it as a lure to isolate and better describe these seeds of aggregation.

According to Medical Xpress , a new study suggests that psychological forces like anxiety or fear of falling, cognitive sub-performances like executive functions, and behavioral indicators such as support seeking and interplay with other risk variables should be factored into documented risk of falling in persons with disabilities (PWD). "PWD show a threefold incidence of falls and a doubled incidences of severe falls as compared to peers without dementia, and an inaccurate risk-perception and associated behavioral consequences may represent a link to this traumatic event in old age," said Heidelberg University's Klaus Hauer, as reported in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease . Persons with neurodegenerative diseases often exhibit poor self-awareness that may worsen already compromised decision-making and behavior. However, psychological- or functional status or adaptive behavioral strategies have been strongly associated with incorrect fall risk perception in study samples that lack cognitive impairment or unspecified cognitive status. Those factors may interfere with, enable, offset, or superimpose the effects of impaired cognition. "Study results indicate that cognitive impairment per se does not lead to underestimation of risk of falling while results of specific cognitive subdomains such as less impaired executive and memory function was only associated with overestimation of risk in this group of persons with beginning to moderate stage dementia," explained Heidelberg's Ilona Dutzi. "Other factors such as anxiety, concerns about falling, activity avoidance, history of falls, or support-seeking strategies represented more relevant parameters to discriminate between match or mismatch of objective versus subjective risk of falling."

United Press International reports that a survey from genetic testing company Myriad Neuroscience indicated that 61 percent of senior Americans with depression will not seek treatment. One-third of almost 1,500 respondents 65 and older think they can "snap out" of it in lieu of counseling, drug therapy, or other forms of treatment. Moreover, 39 percent of surveyed seniors felt they could manage their symptoms on their own without clinical help, while 35 percent said they did not want to be on medication for the condition. Thirty percent of older respondents called depression a normal part of aging, while one in three said the symptoms impacted aspects of their lives and one in four said the condition affects their overall health. Of all respondents, which included 650 adults 18 and older, 44 percent of men and 21 percent of women described depression as a normal part of aging. "Many older Americans think that admitting they are struggling with depression and anxiety is a sign of weakness," said Myriad Neuroscience Chief Medical Officer Mark Pollack. "This is a problem, especially now when the isolation, fear, and sadness associated with the pandemic is having an enormous impact on the mental health of older Americans."

A growing body of research is identifying U.S. counties and neighborhoods with higher prevalence of Alzheimer's disease, with geriatricians striving to find common risk factors in those locations, and any possibility of mitigating them, reports the Wall Street Journal . The investigators have mined government and medical data to find areas with high and low prevalence, and found that overall prevalence is more highly focused in Southeast and Gulf Coast states compared with Western states. "We've thought about Alzheimer's as a purely biological disease and neglected the social determinants of health" like income, education, and access to healthcare and nutritious food, says Duke University's P. Murali Doraiswamy. A recent study from UsAgainstAlzheimer's and the Urban Institute cited 25 counties with the highest and lowest prevalence of Alzheimer's disease for Blacks, Latinos, and whites, according to 2016 Medicare data. Medical experts and researchers on aging suggest the location-centric analyses can help identify gaps between where treatment and research are supplied and where they are needed. The studies also localize regions that might benefit from more intense and customized interventions to modify behavior and improve local living conditions that impact health. "Until we find an effective cure, the most we can do and best we can do is to try to change some of the factors that might contribute to the onset of dementia," explains the Urban Institute's Stipica Mudrazija.

A study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry tracked 382 people ages 52 to 104 — mean age 76.8 — to consider how group exercise classes affected older adults experiencing loneliness and social isolation, reports the Los Angeles Daily News . The researchers observed a 6.9 percent decrease in loneliness and a 3.3 percent improvement in social connectedness. "These classes had already been shown to reduce the risk of falls in seniors, and this was the first demonstration that they also reduce social isolation, to the best of our knowledge," said Allison Moser Mays at Cedars-Sinai. Participants met with a health coach who evaluated their needs and helped them choose one of four courses — arthritis exercise, enhanced fitness, tai chi, and chronic disease self-management; the three exercise classes were the most popular. Investigators said the coach was especially critical at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with classes going virtual and participants sometimes needing assistance logging on to the platform. "As the demographics of our country shift, more people are living alone than ever before," Mays said. "The number of adults over the age of 65 in the U.S. is expected to reach more than 70 million by 2030 — double what it is now. We need sustainable ways to help this burgeoning population thrive as they age, or there will be widespread consequences."

Medical Xpress reports that the World Health Organization is debating the best way to allocate and prioritize COVID-19 vaccines when they arrive, with vaccinating older, more vulnerable people likely to be the best option. If the vaccines are less effective in older adults, more people will require inoculation, and prioritizing children is one possible approach. A COVID-19 vaccine may be less effective in seniors due to the natural decline of their immune systems. Vaccinating young people, who generally have a stronger immune response, would consequently shield older people by reducing the likelihood of their exposure to the virus. Controversy surrounding prioritized vaccinations for children is inevitable, as children cannot autonomously consent to being vaccinated. Adults, who make these decisions on their behalf, also are likely to benefit, creating a possible conflict of interest. Yet vaccination offers collective benefits to the public at large, as there is unlikely to be a single identified individual a vaccinated child will help, or whom they are in a unique position to help. Factors to consider in determining whether children should be vaccinated ahead of adults include the severity of the threat to public health; the existence of alternative treatments; and whether the response is proportional to the threat.

Wall Street Journal columnist Glenn Ruffenach writes that strength or resistance training may be just as important as cardio workouts for older adults' health. He suggests that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Growing Stronger: Strength Training for Older Adults" publication is a good introductory resource on strength training. Ruffenach also recommends the Exercise and Physical Activity page on the National Institute on Aging's (NIA) website. "The article '4 Types of Exercise' provides a good overview of the subject, and 'Exercise and Physical Activity Tracking Tools' can help you record your progress," he notes. Ruffenach further highlights the book "Weights for 50+" by Karl Knopf, as well as NIA's "Exercise & Physical Activity: Your Everyday Guide." To start a strength training regimen, Ruffenach says "lifting something as simple as bottled water or soup cans, according to the National Institute on Aging, can give you the exercise you need."