American Longevity Trend Not Holding With COVID-19

The trend of Americans living longer and longer was broken last year, thanks in large part to deaths from COVID-19, although not helping was the increase in drug overdoses, growth in deaths from heart disease, diabetes and homicide.  The average life expectancy dropped 1.8 years to 77 years in 2020, well above analyst estimates.  “I knew there was going to be a decline, but I didn’t expect it to be this large,” CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics and author of the report Elizabeth Arias, told The Wall Street Journal.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/life-expectancy-in-u-s-declined-1-8-years-in-2020-cdc-says-11640149261

Telehealth Has Become The Norm For Seniors During The Pandemic

A doctor holding a stethoscope with his hand

Telehealth has become a normal part of the daily life of seniors, although there has been a big behind the scene battle being played out as Medicare has threatened to stop reimbursing for these visits once the pandemic has lifted.  However, with the new Omicron strain of COVID-19 spreading like wildfire, for now, at least, Medicare has backed down and extended coverage of remote health care through at least 2023.  Granted, it does have its limitations.  For instance, patients and physicians worry that the lack of face-to-face visits won’t allow the doctor to pick up on subtle clues about the patient’s health that body language might reveal with a personal visit.  However, with 52.7 million Medicare visits clocked last year versus only 840K in 2019, clearly something is working!

Monterey, CA Elder Abuse Alert : Pandemic Related Scams Hit Seniors Hard : By Derek Baine

The Federal Trade Commission recently unveiled an unpleasant statistic. We all know that millions of people died from COVID-19, however, it also resulted an opportunity for fraudsters to take advantage of the fear this created.  This resulted  in older Americans losing $600 million to scams in 2020, much of it fueled by pandemic-related schemes, according to federal officials.  Losses in many top categories topped 2019, according to the FTC, with online shopping scams up 129%, business imposter fraud up 88% and romance scams +66%.  Among the losses of those 60 and older, $104 million came from 26,518 complaints tied directly to COVID-19 scams (Source AARP Bulletin, November 2021 Issue, page 4).

Pebble Beach, CA Telemedicine Is Here To Stay, Says Medicare

A doctor holding a stethoscope with his hand

More than three times as many Medicare beneficiaries had access to their doctors via a phone or video visit during the pandemic than before, a trend which is likely to continue with the new COVID-19 variant causing another surge in coronavirus cases.  The Kaiser Foundation, which recently conducted a study on this issue, said that expanded telehealth care is really good news for people of color, those with disabilities and low income families.   Those living in rural areas had difficulty getting to the doctor even before coronavirus.  Believe it or not, Monterey County is considered rural and indeed in South and North County populations are spread out over quite a large footprint. Thankfully, in early 2020, Medicare expanded coverage of such visits to enable all enrollees to keep up with their medical care while minimizing their r4isk of exposure to the coronavirus.  Although the rules only extend through the end of 2021, there are a number of bills in Congress which would make telehealth coverage permanent.

https://www.aarp.org/health/medicare-insurance/info-2021/telehealth-increase-covid-pandemic.html

Pandemic, Inflation Weight Heavily On Social Security Fund

Trustees for the Social Security trust fund have revised their forecasts, and although the pandemic weighed heavily on the system, it was not as bad as originally thought.  The program is forecasted to be out of funds by 2034, just one year sooner than they had forecast in their April 2020 report.  Unless Congress shores up the fund, benefits will be automatically reduced starting in 2034.  Also weighing heavily on Social Security is the fact that inflation has increased, pushing up the cost of living increase which will further deplete funds.  “There is an incredible amount of uncertainty,” one senior administration official said. “We haven’t lived through a pandemic like this in over 100 years, so we don’t know what the effects are.”

FDA Gives Guidance On COVID-19 Booster Shots

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration or FDA today announced the new rules for booster shots.  Seniors 65 years of age and older, individuals 18-64 those are at high risk of developing severe COVID and those exposed to the virus either through their work or living situation are also eligible.  “After considering the totality of the available scientific evidence and the deliberations of our advisory committee of independent, external experts, the FDA amended the EUA for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to allow for a booster dose in certain populations such as health care workers, teachers and day care staff, grocery workers and those in homeless shelters or prisons, among others,” acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said in a statement.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/22/fda-authorizes-pfizers-covid-booster-shots-in-people-65-and-older-and-other-vulnerable-americans.html

To Booster Or Not To Booster, That Is The COVID-19 Question Of The Day

Scientific advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are meeting tomorrow to decide which Americans should get COVID-19 booster shots and when.  The decision will be closely watched after advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Friday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to offer Pfizer booster shots to all Americans over the age of 16 and then unanimously voted in favor of third doses for those over 65 and some high risk groups.  The experts confirmed that a third dose does boost antibody levels, although it’s unclear how long that increase lasts or whether it translates to a meaningful boost in protection against severe disease.

Can Coronavirus Be Chased Away With LED Light?

A blue color poster on COVID -19 Corona Virus Disease

Medical start-up EmitBio thinks it may have a solution for those suffering from low-grade coronavirus, and even the flu and other viruses.  It is testing a handheld LED device that delivers light with precise frequencies, which, when shined to the back of a patient’s nose and throat, can provoke an immune response.  So far, the results look good, with 99.99% elimination of the delta variant of coronavirus in lung cells after three days of shining the light twice a day for about five minutes.  The device could even be used at home.  What an amazing technology.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2021/09/01/this-startup-wants-to-treat-mild-cases-of-covid-with-led-lights/?sh=bc9cf4772f4a&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailydozen&cdlcid=607e1442fe2c195e916f3bb4

Nursing Homes And Assisted Living Facilities Tepid On Mandating COVID-19 Vaccinations, Biden Takes Action

Close up shot Covid vaccine dose

There is no question that there is a major labor shortage, we are suffering from this ourselves.  A recent report said that senior housing facilities are also being hard hit, with employees hard to find and commercial property values sinking as few investors want to be in this type of industry.  However, it’s unclear that many are doing everything in their power to please the customers.  About 39% of senior housing associations surveyed between July 22 and August 8 said that they definitely or probably would impose vaccine mandates.  That’s a surprisingly low number.  We have seen an influx of new clients due to adult children moving their parents out of facilities due to their fear of COVID-19.  That’s only likely to increase as new variants spread.  Thankfully, President Biden has stepped in and said that if nursing homes don’t require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 they will no longer receive Medicare or Medicaid funding.  The current nursing home vaccination rate sits at only 61.5%, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  This is only a hair above the total population.  Some nursing home executives have bristled at the new Biden mandate, stating that staff departures may exceed 20%.  Good riddance I say to the anti-vaxers.  Keep them away from our seniors.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/senior-housing-industry-faces-higher-costs-as-it-plays-lead-role-in-vaccine-mandates-11630411200?mod=djem10point

Many Older American’s Still Haven’t Gotten The Coronavirus Vaccine, Fueling More Deaths : By Derek Baine

Sadly, many senior citizens have not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which is causing hospitalizations across the country to soar as the highly contagious delta variant spreads rapidly.  The U.S. can now boast that is has a much higher share of seniors without full vaccine protection than many other wealthy countries, which means that we will likely see a disproportionate number of deaths of senior Americans compared to other developed countries.  In contrast, unvaccinated seniors in Britain, Canada and Spain are very rare.  Even London, which has higher rates of vaccine hesitancy among seniors than the rest of Britain, is far ahead of the United States in its vaccination rates.  Thankfully, California is doing much better than other states.  Low elderly vaccination rates in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana and Nevada have coincided with surging rates of hospitalizations and deaths.  Next on the list are likely to be Colorado, Kansas and North Dakota which have not yet experienced severe Delta outbreaks but has low senior vaccination rates.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/24/world/vaccines-seniors.html?campaign_id=34&emc=edit_sc_20210824&instance_id=38663&nl=science-times&regi_id=52105769&segment_id=67063&te=1&user_id=7052b81671c57203c64c377c7522baa7