COVID-19 Mortality and Progress Toward Vaccinating Older Adults — World Health Organization, Worldwide, 2020–2022

Abstract

https://www.who.int/news/item/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-secondmeeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-( 2005)-emergency-committeeregarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov) † https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/strategy-to-achieve-global-covid-19vaccination-by-mid-2022 § The strategy brief outlined updated goals, steps, targets, and operational priorities to guide countries, policy makers, civil society, manufacturers, and international organizations in their ongoing efforts through 2022. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/ global-covid-19-vaccination-strategy-in-a-changing-world--july-2022-update ¶ Older adult definitions vary by country, ranging from persons aged ≥45 years to those aged ≥65 years.coverage with a complete COVID-19 vaccination series** for ** Definition of complete primary series might vary among countries and by vaccine product. National authorities have ultimate authority on scheduling decisions within their jurisdictions; however, WHO makes recommendations for COVID-19 vaccine products that have undergone Emergency Use Listing review. Vaccine fact sheets including these definitions according to WHO recommendations can be found at https://extranet.who.int/pqweb/vaccines/ vaccinescovid-19-vaccine-eul-issued.

Higher plasma levels of thymosin-α1 are associated with a lower waning of humoral response after COVID-19 vaccination: an eight months follow-up study in a nursing home

“…Thus, the benefits of vaccination in the prevention of infectious diseases are limited in older people, who normally show defective humoral responses to several vaccines [4], such as Influenza [5,6], Hepatitis B virus [17], and SARS-CoV2 [1,[18][19][20][21]. In fact, despite the considerable high efficacy of the available SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines, aged people, even vaccinated, maintain increased mortality rates due to COVID-19 than younger subjects [22].…”

“…IgG antibodies against the trimeric SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein were quantified in serum samples by using chemiluminescence assay (LIAISON® SARS-CoV-2 TrimericS IgG, Diasorin S.p.A, Saluggia, Italy) and run on a DiaSorin LIAISON XL platform (DiaSorin, Stillwater, USA). According to the manufacturer’s data, the sensitivity and specificity of this test were 98.7 and 99.5%, showing a good correlation with the microneutralization test (Positive percent agreement (PPA): 100%, Negative percent agreement (NPA): 96.9%) [ 22 ]. Antibody concentration, expressed as Binding Arbitrary Units (BAU)/mL, was automatically calculated by the analyzer from Arbitrary Units (AU/mL) by the following conversion formula: AU/mL*2.6 = BAU/mL, and a positive result was considered as ≥33.8 BAU/mL.…”

Flaws and uncertainties in pandemic global excess death calculations

“…If this pattern is widespread, global lost life‐years are far more limited than what crude pandemic excess death counts suggest. According to the WHO estimate, of the 14.9 million excess deaths in 2020–2021, the 0–39 years old stratum accounted for only 5393, 36 which is a miniscule 0.036%. Other authors have also pointed out that estimates of life years lost from COVID‐19 are intrinsically grossly exaggerated, because age and comorbidities information has not been fully accounted 37 …”

HIV and COVID-19 Co-Infection: Epidemiology, Clinical Characteristics, and Treatment

“…Moreover, geographic disparities existed for the coverage of COVID-19 vaccination as well as for antivirals for COVID-19 treatment. According to the WHO, the overall median completed primary series COVID-19 vaccination coverage was 59%, ranging from 21% (low-income countries) to a high of 74% (high-income countries) [ 148 ]. In addition, due to the high cost, antivirals and monoclonal antibodies have limited availability in developed countries.…”