Despite Controversies, Many Older People Have Faith in Vaccines

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 new studies are coming at a fraught political moment. The nation’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long disparaged certain vaccines, calling them unsafe and saying that the government officials who regulate them are compromised and corrupt.

On June 9, Kennedy fired a panel of scientific advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and later replaced them with some who have been skeptical of vaccines. But so far, Kennedy has not tried to curb access to the shots for older Americans.

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.

Vaccines Reduce Hospitalizations

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.

In a meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, “all the enhanced vaccine products were superior to the standard dose for preventing hospitalizations,” said Rebecca Morgan, a health research methodologist at Case Western Reserve University and an author of the study.

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%. The CDC advises adults 65 and older to receive the enhanced vaccines, as many already do.

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 somewhat lower level of protection from the vaccine, will also benefit from it, Terebuh said. As for adverse effects, the study found a very low risk for Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition that causes muscle weakness and that typically follows an infection, in about 11 cases per 1 million doses of vaccine. That, she said, “shouldn’t dissuade people.”

The CDC now recommends RSV vaccination for people 75 and older, and for those 60 to 74 if they’re at higher risk of severe illness (from, say, heart disease).

As data from the 2024-25 season becomes available, researchers hope to determine whether the vaccine will remain a one-and-done, or whether immunity will require repeated vaccination.

People 65 and up express the greatest confidence in vaccine safety of any adult group, a KFF survey found in April. More than 80% said they were “very “or “somewhat confident” about MMR, shingles, pneumonia, and flu shots.

Although the covid vaccine drew lower support among all adults, more than two-thirds of older adults expressed confidence in its safety.

Shingles Vaccine Reduces Dementia Risk

Even skeptics might become excited about one possible benefit of the shingles vaccine: This spring, Stanford researchers reported that over seven years, vaccination against shingles reduced the risk of dementia by 20%, a finding that made headlines.

Biases often undermine observational studies that compare vaccinated with unvaccinated groups. “People who are healthier and more health-motivated are the ones who get vaccinated,” said Pascal Geldsetzer, an epidemiologist at the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience at Stanford and lead author of the study.

“It’s hard to know whether this is cause and effect,” he said, “or whether they’re less likely to develop dementia anyway.”

So the Stanford team took advantage of a “natural experiment” when the first shingles vaccine, Zostavax, was introduced in Wales. Health officials set a strict age cutoff: People who turned 80 on or before Sept. 1, 2013, weren’t eligible for vaccination, but those even slightly younger were eligible.

In the sample of nearly 300,000 adults whose birthdays fell close to either side of that date, almost half of the eligible group received the vaccine, but virtually nobody in the older group did.

“Just as in a randomized trial, these comparison groups should be similar in every way,” Geldsetzer explained. A substantial reduction in dementia diagnoses in the vaccine-eligible group, with a much stronger protective effect in women, therefore constitutes “more powerful and convincing evidence,” he said.

The team also found reduced rates of dementia after shingles vaccines were introduced in Australia and other countries. “We keep seeing this in one dataset after another,” Geldsetzer said.

In the United States, where a more potent vaccine, Shingrix, became available in 2017 and supplanted Zostavax, Oxford investigators found an even stronger effect.

By matching almost 104,000 older Americans who received a first dose of the new vaccine (full immunization requires two) with a group that had received the earlier formulation, they found delayed onset of dementia in the Shingrix group.

How a shingles vaccine might reduce dementia remains unexplained. Scientists have suggested that viruses themselves may contribute to dementia, so suppressing them could protect the brain. Perhaps the vaccine revs up the immune system in general or affects inflammation.

“I don’t think anybody knows,” said Paul Harrison, a psychiatrist at Oxford and a senior author of the study. But, he added, “I’m now convinced there’s something real here.”

Shingrix, now recommended for adults over 50, is 90% effective in preventing shingles and the lingering nerve pain that can result. In 2021, however, only 41% of adults 60 and older had received one dose of either shingles vaccine.

A connection to dementia will require further research, and Geldsetzer is trying to raise philanthropic funding for a clinical trial.

And “if you needed another reason to get this vaccine,” Schaffner said, “here it is.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues.

Americans at High Risk From Coronavirus Urged to Stay Home

By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

A senior U.S. health official warned Sunday that Americans with underlying health conditions should avoid large crowds and not board airplanes or cruise ships because of the coronavirus outbreak. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also said quarantines of infected areas in the U.S. may become necessary.

"It's possible," Fauci told host Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. "You don't want to alarm people, but given the spread we've seen, anything is possible, and that’s the reason we have got to be prepared to take whatever action is appropriate to contain and mitigate the outbreak."

Italy’s Prime Minister on Sunday ordered a quarantine of northern Italy, after a spike of over a thousand new coronavirus cases was reported.  Italy has recorded nearly 6,000 cases and 233 deaths, the most fatalities outside of mainland China. About 16 million people live inside the quarantine area.

"We have to be realistic," said Fauci, when asked if similar travel bans could be imposed in the U.S. "I don't think it would be as draconian as nobody in and nobody out, but if we continue to get cases like this, particularly at the community level, there will be what we call mitigation, when you'll have to do essentially social distancing: keep people out of crowded places, take a look at seriousness -- do you really need to travel? And I think it particularly important among the most vulnerable.”

Fauci says elderly people with heart disease, chronic lung disease and diabetes should avoid high-risk situations, such “crowded places, getting on airplanes, and absolutely don’t get on a cruise ship.”

‘You’re Going to See More Deaths’

The comments from Fauci and other leading health officials signaled the U.S. was shifting from a failed effort to contain the virus to mitigation, such as closing schools and cancelling large gatherings.

"Initially, we had a posture of containment so that we could give people time to prepare for where we are right now. We're shifting into a mitigation phase, which means that we're helping communities understand you're going to see more cases. Unfortunately, you're going to see more deaths. But that doesn't mean that we should panic," U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said CNN's State of the Union.

“We have to implement broad mitigation strategies. The next two weeks are really going to change the complexion in this country. We’ll get through this, but it’s going to be a hard period. We’re looking at two months, probably, of difficulty,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said on CBS’ Face the Nation.

As of today, there are 21 deaths and 521 confirmed cases of coronavirus in at least 33 states, although the actual number is likely to be higher because testing for the virus in the U.S. has been limited. There are over 109,000 cases worldwide and 3,799 deaths.

Early information out of China suggested the chances of a coronavirus patient dying were about 2.3 percent. But last week the World Health Organization raised the fatality rate to 3.4 percent, which is far higher than seasonal flu, which kills about 0.1% of those infected.

While symptoms are mild for most coronavirus patients, the elderly and those with chronic health conditions are most at risk. A study done by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that people over the age of 80 have the highest fatality rate of all age groups at 14.8 percent, followed by people in their seventies (8%) and sixties (3.6%).

People with the following health conditions also have a higher risk of dying:

  • 10.5% Cardiovascular disease

  •   7.3% Diabetes

  •   6.3% Chronic respiratory disease

  •   6.0% Hypertension

  •   5.6% Cancer    

According to the CDC, people at higher risk from the COVID-19 virus should stay home and “avoid crowds as much as possible.”

Overuse of Acetaminophen Increases During Flu Season

By Pat Anson, Editor

Acetaminophen is a key ingredient in hundreds of over-the-counter pain relievers and cough, cold and flu medicines – from Excedrin and Tylenol to Theraflu and Alka-Seltzer Plus.

Recent guidelines released by the UK’s National Institute for Health Care Excellence (NICE) even recommend acetaminophen (paracetamol) for treating sore throat pain.

But a large new study warns that too many cold and flu sufferers take too much acetaminophen – which has long been associated with liver damage and allergic reactions such as skin rash.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Boston’s University’s Slone Epidemiology Center surveyed nearly 14,500 U.S. adults about their use of acetaminophen in the preceding 30 days. The study, which was sponsored by Johnson & Johnson, was conducted over a five-year period, from 2011 to 2016.

Investigators found that 6.3% of acetaminophen users exceeded the recommended maximum adult daily dose of 4,000 mg on at least one day during a week that they used acetaminophen.

Usage patterns grew during the cold and flu season. The odds of taking more than 4,000 mg of acetaminophen increased to 6.5% compared to 5.3% during the off-season.

This was primarily due to increased use of over-the-counter medications designed to treat upper respiratory cold and flu symptoms.

"This is the first multi-year, year-round study that includes detailed data on how consumers used acetaminophen medications," said Saul Shiffman, PhD, of Pinney Associates and the University of Pittsburgh. "The study findings suggest the importance of educating consumers about acetaminophen and counseling them about appropriate use and safe dosages of these medications.

"Getting this message out is especially important during cold/flu season, when people may be more likely to treat illness symptoms with acetaminophen combination products, sometimes without even realizing they contain acetaminophen."

The use of acetaminophen (paracetamol) is even more pronounced in France, according to a new study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

There was a 53% increase in the use of paracetamol in France between 2006 and 2015, and 1000 mg tablets of paracetamol (which are not available in the United States) are now the most-used drug among French adults. There is also a trend towards larger doses. Consumption of 1000 mg tablets increased by 140 percent in France over the ten-year study; while consumption of 500 mg tablets decreased by 20 percent.

Compared to other countries in Europe, France ranked first in paracetamol usage and third in the consumption of mild opioids such as tramadol and codeine. The French use of strong opioids such as morphine was among the lowest in Europe.

"To our knowledge, this is the first published study analysing consumption trends for both non-opioids and opioids over the last decade in France. Long-term surveillance over the past 10 years has highlighted quantitative and qualitative changes in analgesic consumption patterns in France," said study co-author Philippe Cavalié, PhD, of the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety.

"The very widespread analgesics consumption that we have documented raises the concern of overuse and misuse, as well as addiction to opioids."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked drug makers in 2011 to limit acetaminophen doses to 325 mg per tablet or capsule. The FDA also requires a “Boxed Warning” label – the agency’s strongest warning – to call attention to serious risks.

Over 50 million people in the U.S. use acetaminophen each week for pain and fever – many unaware of the risk of liver injury and allergic reactions. Over 50,000 emergency room visits each year in the U.S. are blamed on acetaminophen overdoses, including 25,000 hospitalizations and 450 deaths.

For more information about acetaminophen and how to avoid overdosing, visit KnowYourDose.org.

Flu and NSAIDs Increase Heart Attack Risk

By Pat Anson, Editor

With the cold and flu season in full swing, many people take over-the-counter pain relievers like Advil and Aleve to ease their aches and pains, and to help them sleep.

What many don’t know is that they may be increasing their risk of a heart attack.

In a study of nearly 10,000 people hospitalized in Taiwan after a heart attack, researchers found that patients who took non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) during an acute respiratory infection tripled their risk of an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack).  The study was published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Respiratory infections and NSAIDs were both already known to raise the risk of cardiovascular problems, but this was the first time they were studied together.  

"Physicians should be aware that the use of NSAIDs during an acute respiratory infection might further increase the risk of a heart attack," said lead author Cheng-Chung Fang, MD, of National Taiwan University Hospital.

“This approach should raise clinical concern because NSAIDs use during ARI (acute respiratory infection) episodes is highly common in real-world practice.”

Fang and his colleagues found that using NSAIDs while having a respiratory infection was associated with a 3.4-fold increased risk for a heart attack. The risk was 7.2 times higher when patients received NSAIDs intravenously in the hospital.

Another commonly used pain reliever, acetaminophen, which eases pain in a different way than NSAIDs do, was not evaluated in the study. But researchers say it may be a safer alternative, at least in terms of cardiac risk, for relief from cold and flu symptoms.

NSAIDs are widely used to treat everything from fever and headache to low back pain and arthritis. They are found in so many different over-the-counter products -- such as ibuprofen, Advil and Motrin -- that many consumers may not be aware how often they use NSAIDs. 

In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered warning labels for all NSAIDs to be strengthened to indicate they increase the risk of a fatal heart attack or stroke. The revised warning does not apply to aspirin. The FDA said people who have a history of heart disease, particularly those who recently had a heart attack or cardiac bypass surgery, are at the greatest risk.

European researchers released an even stronger warning last year, saying there was no solid evidence that NSAIDs are safe.

Exactly how the pain relievers damage the heart is unclear, but a recent study on animals at the University of California, Davis found that NSAIDs reduced the activity of cardiac cells and caused some cells to die.