Since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020, COVID has become one of the top causes of illness and death in the US, and has especially impacted aging adults, for both health and social reasons.
Older age is one of the top risk factors for severe COVID; it’s even a stronger risk factor than vaccination status. So this is an important issue for us to follow in geriatrics.
On this page, I’ll be posting updates related to COVID and older adults, for 2023. I’ll be focusing on important developments and what I think is most important for older adults and their families to know, to be safer and manage these COVID times we are living through.
I also have a section below on general COVID safety principles for older adults.
Covid & Aging Adults: COVID News 2023
COVID fall vaccine update September 21, 2023
The CDC announced recently that new COVID vaccines are available for the 2023-2024 season.
They are recommended for everyone over the age of 6 months, and are especially recommended for adults over the age of 65.
This fall, the COVID vaccine is a monovalent vaccine based on the XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron (which was the most prevalent variant at the beginning of the summer). Although there are different Omicron subvariants currently circulating, the XBB.1.5 is expected to provide good protection against hospitalization and deaths.
If you are a details and data person, you can find the slides presented at the 9/12/23 CDC meeting here.
Learn more about the new fall COVID vaccines here: CDC: Stay Up to Date with COVID-19 Vaccines.
I highly recommend that adults aged 65+ get this updated COVID vaccine, especially if they have not had COVID in the past 4 months.
I also recommend that aging adults get their annual flu shot (get one of the stronger ones recommended for older adults) and consider the new RSV vaccine for older adults.
Otherwise, my recommendations for how to stay safe in regards to COVID have not changed since my most recent video update from August, which you can view below.
Here is my most recent video update, from August 14, 2023: [Read more…]