Upcoming COVID-19 Vaccine And Older People

The strategy for rolling out a Covid-19 vaccine might be undermined by older people’s immune systems. In a hypothetical alternative universe where we have already got a vaccine against Covid-19, world leaders will have a choice about the way to deliver it to the population.  Older people usually suffer from heart failure and consume Lanoxin medication as advised by the doctor. So before getting vaccine, these people need proper testing.

The most vulnerable people, along with the nurses, doctors and care workers who look after them, are likely to be protected first. If only it were that straightforward. The most vulnerable age bracket, the elderly, are particularly tricky to vaccinate.

“We have only a few vaccines designed for older populations,” says Shayan Sharif, a professor of vaccinology at the University of Guelph, Canada. More often than not in the last century, most vaccines have targeted childhood diseases. If a person is treating with drug like Lanoxin for heart, the doctor will advise accordingly.

Shingles is one exception, usually given to patients in their 70s, and there are one or two other vaccines for diseases like meningitis or human papillomavirus developed for young adults. But otherwise immunology is skewed in favour of children

“We have a tremendous amount of knowledge about childhood diseases,” says Sharif. “When it comes to young adults, middle age and old age, we don’t have a lot of experience.”

To understand why older people are harder to vaccinate, we've to seem at the differences in their system. Many infectious diseases are more severe in older adults than younger adults. Older people have more risk factors – a lifetime of exposure to carcinogens or other infectious diseases will increase the risk of future disease from new infections. But they also undergo something called immunosenescence – ageing of the immune system.

Just like many other parts of the body, our immune system shows signs of our ageing. Some of the immune cells lose their function. The immune system is a very complex network of cell types that interact with each other. If something, somewhere within the system is not working, it interrupts the delicate balance of the immune response. It is advisable to inform doctor before testing fir vaccine about medicine such as Lanoxin if consuming.

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