USA: hospitalizations for COVID-19 increase

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations are on the rise again in the United States, where seniors account for an increasing proportion of deaths and less than half of nursing home residents are up to date on COVID vaccinations.

These alarming signs portend a difficult winter for seniors, which worries nursing home resident Bartley O’Hara, 81, who says he is “vaccinated up to his eyebrows” and follows coronavirus hospital trends, which “increase ” in the case of older adults, but remain stable in the case of young people.

“The sense of urgency isn’t universal,” says O’Hara, of Washington, DC, but “if you’re 21, you should probably worry about your grandmother. We are all in this together.”

A worrying indicator for the elderly: hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 have increased by more than 30% in two weeks. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says much of the increase is due to older people and those who already have health problems. The figures include all people who tested positive, regardless of the reason for their hospitalization.

When it comes to protecting older people, “we are doing it wrong in this country,” said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.

As care home managers redouble their efforts to ensure staff and residents get the new version of the vaccine, now recommended for people over 6 months of age, they face complacency, misinformation and fatigue over the issue. They are asking the White House for help with an “all for one” approach.

Clear messages about what the vaccine can and can’t do are needed, according to Katie Smith Sloan, president of LeadingAge, which represents non-profit nursing homes.

According to her, the increase in infections does not mean that the vaccine has failed, but that the false perception has been difficult to fight.

“We need to change our messaging to be specific about what it does, which is prevent serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths,” Sloan said. “This virus is insidious and keeps popping up everywhere. We have to be realistic about it.”

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Associated Press writer Nicky Forster of New York contributed to this report.