The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in tremendous loss of life. As of late-July 2021, there have been more than 191 million confirmed cases and over 4.1 million deaths recorded (1). Although most nations have developed some competency in COVID-19 containment (2-4), there are new challenges. The continual spread of COVID-19 has resulted in new variants (5-7). These new variants are posited to have a significantly higher transmissibility (8-10), with higher fatality rates (11,12).With complete eradication of the COVID-19 virus seeming highly unlikely, the shift for healthcare experts is now to reduce this pandemic into a state of mild disease endemicity (13)(14)(15)(16)(17).Vaccines play an essential role in this transition (14,16).Vaccines provide protection in a few crucial ways. In its most effective form, it serves to prevent natural infection; if immunity response following the vaccine does not prevent natural infection, it may still attenuate virus pathology, reducing the infectiousness and/or severity of disease symptoms (18). Only a while ago the world was racing towards developing a vaccine for this devastating disease (19), currently, with vaccines in hand, countries struggle to have significant portions of their population vaccinated (20)(21)(22)(23). In order to achieve herd immunity through vaccines of 95 percent efficacy, calculations suggest about 63-76% of the population would have to be vaccinated (24). This range increases to 84-90% when including a safety margin (24). This safety margin is perhaps needful given a reduced efficacy against new COVID-19 variants observed in emerging reports (25)(26)(27).The COVID-19 virus has been especially dangerous for older adults. Studies have shown the virus causing worse outcomes and having a higher mortality rate among older adults (28,29). This is perhaps unsurprising given the known susceptibility of older adults to other infectious diseases (30,31). Against the backdrop of global ageing trends, this is particularly concerning. The population of individuals aged 65 and over is growing faster than any other age group (32). Globally, there are over 727 million persons aged 65 years and over (33). With a sizable older adult population in many countries, and due to COVID-19's implications on the elderly, countries have consequently prioritised vaccinating older adults (34-36).The collective impact of having substantial older adult populations, the elderly being more vulnerable to COVID-19, and the need to have high percentages of these senior vaccinated, beckons us to consider the barriers to inoculation among the elderly. Emerging research has identified demographic characteristics of older adults hesitant in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. These older adults generally received less years of formal education and had less social contact (37, 38), a pattern also observed among the general population (39, 40). However, beyond demographic characteristics and factors, research on the specific beliefs held by these older adults have been sparse. Cognitive factors su...

Mixed findings in the literature on the effects of older adult employment on well-being and the reciprocal influence of well-being on employment suggest the need for more careful methodology in teasing out this relationship. Moreover, as previous research has shown that different domains of well-being relate to constructs differently, more nuanced definitions of well-being may be appropriate. The present study examined the longitudinal bidirectional associations of employment and different domains of well-being, controlling for stable within-person variables. The present study sampled older adults from the Midlife Development in the US study at three timepoints on employment status and well-being, specifically psychological, social, and subjective well-being. A Random-Intercept Cross-lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) approach was employed to determine the longitudinal bidirectional influence of employment and domains of well-being. Results showed that employment status was not associated with various well-being domains at a later time point. Results also showed that greater well-being, specifically in meaningfulness of society and personal growth, was associated with being employed at a later time point.

Background Distrust, and more broadly, public perception of government’s handling of a crisis, has been a widely studied topic within health crisis research and suggests that these perceptions are significantly associated with the behavior of its citizens. Purpose To understand which aspects of the public’s perception of government handling of the COVID-19 pandemic predicted engagement of protective behaviors among older adults, who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19. Methods Participants were recruited from an ongoing biopsychosocial study on aging amongst community-dwelling older adults. There were two rounds of data collection, during the national lockdown and post-lockdown. The average length of follow-up was 5.88 months. N = 421 completed the first round of data collection and N = 318 subsequently completed the second round of questionnaires. Results During the lockdown, perceptions that pandemic-related measures in place were sufficient, effective, timely, provided a sense of safety, important information was easily accessible, and government handling of the pandemic could be trusted, were found to significantly predict engagement in protective behaviors. During post-lockdown, only perceptions that measures in place were sufficient, provided a sense of safety, and important information was easily accessible, remained significant predictors. The perception that COVID-19 measures were clear and easy to understand now became a significant predictor. Conclusions Public perceptions of government handling of the pandemic predicted engagement in protective behaviors but were less important during post-lockdown. To effectively engage older adults in protective behavior, our findings suggest for pandemic-related information to be accessible, introducing timely safety measures, and having easy-to-understand instructions for nuanced measures.