EMBRACING VACCINES
The proof is in the research
STORY BY PAULA SPAN KFF Health News
Kim Beckham, an insurance agent in Victoria, Texas, had seen friends suffer so badly from shingles that she wanted to receive the first approved shingles vaccine as soon as it became available, even if she had to pay for it out-of-pocket.
Her doctor and several pharmacies turned her down because she was below the recommended age at the time, which was 60. So, in 2016, she celebrated her 60th birthday at her local CVS.
“ I was there when they opened,” Beckham recalled. After getting her Zostavax shot, she said,“ I felt really relieved.” She has since received the newer, more effective shingles vaccine, as well as a pneumonia shot, an RSV vaccine to guard against respiratory syncytial virus, annual flu shots and all recommended Covid-19 vaccinations.
Some older people are really eager to be vaccinated.
Robin Wolaner, 71, a retired publisher in Sausalito, California, has been known to badger friends who delay getting recommended shots, sending them relevant medical studies.“ I’ m sort of hectoring,” she acknowledged.
Deana Hendrickson, 66, who provides daily care for three young grandsons in Los Angeles, sought an additional MMR shot, though she was vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella as a child, in case her immunity to measles had waned.
For older adults who express more confidence in vaccine safety than younger groups, the past few months have brought welcome research. Studies have found important benefits from a newer vaccine and enhanced versions of older ones, and one vaccine may confer a major bonus that nobody foresaw.
The evidence that vaccines are beneficial remains overwhelming. The phrase“ Vaccines are not just for kids anymore” has become a favorite for William Schaffner, an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“ The population over 65, which often suffers the worst impact of respiratory viruses and others, now has the benefit of vaccines that can prevent much of that serious illness,” he said.
Take influenza, which annually sends from 140,000 to 710,000 people to hospitals, most of them seniors, and is fatal to 10 % of hospitalized older adults.
For about 15 years, the CDC has approved several enhanced flu vaccines for people 65 and older. More effective than the standard formulation, they either contain higher levels of the antigen that builds protection against the virus or incorporate an adjuvant that creates a stronger immune response. Or they’ re recombinant vaccines, developed through a different method, with higher antigen levels.
Compared with the standard flu shot, the enhanced vaccines reduced the risk of hospitalization from the flu in older adults, by at least 11 % and up to 18 %.
More good news: Vaccines to prevent respiratory syncytial virus in people 60 and older are performing admirably.
RSV is the most common cause of hospitalization for infants, and it also poses significant risks to older people.“ Season in and season out,” Schaffner said,“ it produces outbreaks of serious respiratory illness that rivals influenza.”
Because the FDA first approved an RSV vaccine in 2023, the 2023-24 season provided“ the first opportunity to see it in a real-world context,” said Pauline Terebuh, an epidemiologist at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and an author of a recent study in the journal JAMA Network Open.
In analyzing electronic health records for almost 800,000 patients, the researchers found the vaccines to be 75 % effective against acute infection, meaning illness that was serious enough to send a patient to a health care provider.
The vaccines were 75 % effective in preventing emergency room or urgent care visits, and 75 % effective against hospitalization, both among those ages 60 to 74 and those older.
Immunocompromised patients, despite having a
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