Older men don’t respond as well to vaccination as older women, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Giving Covid vaccines to adults aged 75 and older has shown that while they do respond with antibodies, that response lasts a much shorter time than in younger people. Johns Hopkins geriatrics expert Sean Leng says the study also found some other important aspects to the immune response to vaccination.

Leng: Sex does make a difference. The male individuals are less able to mount a good antibody response, particularly those who are frail, mostly in their 80s and 90s. Comorbidity is important as well, so we found a major impact of frailty for those people who typically have multiple chronic diseases. Those frail individuals even compared to those who were not frail, particularly male individuals, they have much less antibody response and immune waning is faster as well.  :32

Comorbidity, or the presence of other health conditions, is known to increase susceptibility to Covid. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.