Of the million lives lost to Covid-19 so far, about 75% were people aged 65 and older.
Many more seniors may lose their lives, health experts warn, because they haven’t gotten their booster shots.
“While seniors aren’t more likely to get infected than anybody else, if they get infected, they’re more likely to have a bad outcome. That’s why we really stress making sure that their immunity is optimized with the vaccine,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, an expert on infectious diseases at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
He says many seniors still haven’t had their first booster shot. Even fewer have gotten their second booster.
“Our vaccines work still really well against preventing hospitalization and death, but with these new variants of Omicron, they don’t work as well in terms of preventing people from getting infected and getting symptoms.” Dr. Swartzberg said. “So, it’s terribly important, particularly in those people, like seniors, who are more likely to have a complication than younger people, to get that maximum protection with the fourth jab.’”
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