Continuing to State the Obvious on Vulnerability to COVID-19 Due to Aging

Not every SARS-CoV-2 infection in the COVID-19 pandemic is equal. Young people near all shrug off infection with a few weeks of inconvenience at worst. Old people, on the other hand, exhibit more significant illness and a high mortality rate. That mortality rate increases with both advancing age and the presence of inflammatory age-related chronic disease. The average 20 year old has a radically different risk profile when compared to the average 80 year old. This is one of the reasons why the commonly presented data, estimated infections per capita, or detected infections over time, is unhelpful. It needs the context of the age of the patients. The popular media shows no inclination to correctly present SARS-CoV-2 as being a meaningful threat only to older people, tending to focus on overall infection counts, as well as on the tiny number of young people who are greatly impacted or killed by SARS-CoV-2. Meanwhile, the scientific community continues to publish papers that state the obvious on this topic. Viral infection disproportionately harms old people because of immunosenescence and inflammaging, the age-related decline in immune system competence and function. The best way to address the problem of mortality due to infectious disease in the elderly is to build therapies that can restore immune function. There are many plausible approaches to improved immune function in the old. Regrowing the thymus. Improving hematopoietic stem cell function. Clearing out m...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs