Vaccines Are Helping Older People More Than We Knew

What’s Happening

So get this: Many shots seem to have “off-target” benefits, such as lowering the risk of dementia, studies have found.

The New Old Age Vaccines Are Helping Older People More Than We Knew By Paula Span Republish This Story Disponible en Español (iStock/) Let’s be clear: The primary reason to be vaccinated against shingles is that two shots provide at least 90% protection against a painful, blistering disease that a third of Americans will suffer in their lifetimes, one that can cause lingering nerve pain and other nasty long-term consequences. This story also ran on The New York Times . (shocking, we know)

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The Details

About “The New Old Age” “The New Old Age” is produced through a partnership with The New York Times . Columns The most important reason for older adults to be vaccinated against the respiratory infection RSV is that their risk of being hospitalized with it declines by almost 70% in the year they get the shot, and by nearly 60% over two years.

And the main reason to roll up a sleeve for an annual flu shot is that when people do get infected, it also reliably reduces the severity of illness, though its effectiveness varies scientists have predicted which strain of influenza shows up. But other reasons for older people to be vaccinated are emerging.

Why This Matters

They are known, in doctor-speak, as off-target benefits, meaning that the shots do good things beyond preventing the diseases they were designed to avert. The list of off-target benefits is lengthening as “the research has accumulated and accelerated over the last 10 years,” dropped William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Some of these protections have been established data; others are the subjects of more recent research, and the payoff is not yet as clear.

Health experts are weighing in on what this means for people.

The Bottom Line

The first RSV vaccines, for example, became available only in 2023. Still, the findings “are fr consistent,” dropped Stefania Maggi, a geriatrician and senior fellow at the Institute of Neuroscience at the National Research Council in Padua, Italy.

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