Three years into the pandemic, nursing home residents are still in Covid’s crosshairs (msn.com)

Federal health agencies worked to get more nursing home residents and staff to take the latest Covid booster all winter, creating social media hashtags, putting money into vaccine hotlines and flagging the worst performing facilities to states.

But their decision to scale back on two vaccine interventions that were critical in getting residents and staff protected from Covid during the first vaccine rollout in late 2020 and 2021 has left the job mostly to facilities, resident advocates say, with disappointing results.

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COVID vaccine uptake low among older people, especially in poorer nations The global vaccination rate in 2022 for people older than 60 was 76%, but it was only 33% in low-income countries. CIDRAP

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

Paxlovid may help prevent hospitalization, death in COVID outpatients CIDRAP

Two new studies, one from the United States and one from Canada, suggest that the oral antiviral drug Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir-ritonavir) is effective in lowering the odds of hospitalization or death from the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariant.

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