More than 28 million seniors are at risk of severe illness with the new version ‘BA.2’ of the Omicron coronavirus variant in the United States because of either being partially vaccinated, being unvaccinated or because more than five months have passed since their second or third vaccine dose. The CDC data shows that about 15 million older Americans missed their third dose.

An analysis by the UK Health Security Agency revealed that the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron was about 80% more contagious than BA.1, which affected the US last winter. Number of cases and hospitalizations was again surging in the UK and several other European countries due the predominance of the BA.2 strain. The strain could once again adversely affect the healthcare resources in the US if more people are infected by the strain.

Amid all this, the immune status of adults aged above 65 years will be a major indicator of how future variants will impact the US since the risk of severe outcomes is known to increase with age.

Stephen Kissler, who specializes in infectious disease modeling at Harvards TH Chan School of Public Health, said that the amount of prior immunity that the older adults have, whether from previous infection or vaccination, has been the best indicator of how severe the cases will be, in terms of hospitalizations and deaths.

Experts are of the view that the BA.2 wave in the US may not be as severe as in Hong Kong, but could be similar to the UK. Therefore, vaccinations and boosters for seniors were essential. (CNN, March 17, 2022)