But their immune systems are another important factor, researchers say. “When you challenge a body with a virus or a vaccine, there’s just not the vigorous response,” said Cari Levy, a geriatrician who is a professor at the University of Colorado [School of Medicine].
“One research team has tried to make in yeast so you could grow cultures of yeasts similar to fermenting beer,” said David Kroll, Ph.D., a professor of pharmacology at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus. He says finding a cure for coronavirus will be the biggest vaccine undertaking in recent medical history.
Professor of Pediatrics Dr. Sean O’Leary with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus/Children’s Hospital Colorado said he recommends the flu shot to anybody older than 6 months. He noted recent data that showed 71% of children 6 months old through 17 years old were vaccinated and 51% of people older than 18 were vaccinated. He said there's room for improvement for both age groups.
It’s not yet clear if young people, who accounted for a high percentage of new cases recently, are starting to get sick enough to need hospital care, or if they might have passed the virus to higher-risk age groups, said Beth Carlton, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the Colorado School of Public Health.
Some health systems enrolling patients in a trial of Moderna’s vaccine candidate are setting specific goals for minority participation. The University of Colorado School of Medicine aims to make minority communities 30 to 40 percent of its sample, it said in a press release.
“A single and coordinated strategy might have brought us to a different place,” says Dr. Jon Samet, dean of the Colorado School of Public Health. “Even within some states, counties may proceed independently. There is wide variation in the credence given to misinformation, some sourced from the Administration and even the President.”
With the pandemic, a vaccine may be our only way out, said Dr. Lauren Grossman, an assistant professor of emergency medicine and general internal medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "In this particular case, I don't see how we have much of a choice, to be honest," she said. "Look at what we're going through now with schools reopening."
It appears the rise reflects both increased testing on college campuses, and increased spread of the virus within that population, said Beth Carlton, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the Colorado School of Public Health. What direction the epidemic will take depends on how seriously people take precautions like mask-wearing and social distancing over the next days and weeks, she said. “The time is now” to prevent out-of-control spread, she said.
