Vaccination across the nation is now underway, with healthcare workers and those living and working in long-term care facilities among the first to receive the vaccines. Long-term care and nursing home residents make up about 1 percent of the U.S. population, but have accounted for roughly 40 percent of all COVID-19 deaths, and among the general population those older than 50 are more likely to die from COVID-19 than younger age groups. But in COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, older people accounted for less than a quarter of total participants. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the most severe illnesses are among people older than 85, so why are they so scarcely represented in trials? This week we speak with Sharon Inouye, MD, MPH, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a geriatrician at Hebrew Senior Life in Boston. Dr. Inouye is the director of the Aging Brain Center at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research. We also talk to a 60-year-old clinical trial participant to hear about her experience in a trial.
