Buckingham Palace had been taking strict measures to protect Queen Elizabeth from the deadly virus throughout the pandemic. But just as England was about to ease COVID-19 restrictions, the queen tested positive a few months shy of her 96th birthday.
Queen Elizabeth received a dose of the vaccine in January of last year and is widely believed to have gotten a second dose as well as a booster. But because of Elizabeth’s old age, Britons are worried about her health.
Although the vaccine does a great job at reducing the likelihood of contracting and dying from the virus, breakthrough infections are still possible- especially in the elderly. Breakthrough infections are when an individual gets seriously sick because of COVID despite being vaccinated.
CDC data indicates that 67% of hospitalizations and 85% of deaths from breakthrough cases occur in people 65 years and older.
“If you’re under 45, your chances of dying are almost nonexistent, and then it increases exponentially,” says William Petri, vice chair for research at the University of Virginia .
Before the surge of Omicron, a team of British researchers at Oxford University conducted detailed studies on the risks of COVID among different vaccinated age groups and a peer-review journal published the findings in the form of an online calculator.
The results showed that a 45-year-old vaccinated woman has a 0.01% chance of dying after contracting COVID while a 75-year-old vaccinated woman has an alarming 0.45% chance. In comparison, an unvaccinated 75-year-old woman has an exponentially higher, 5.98% chance of mortality.
Since Omicron has now shown to be less deadly than previous variants, these rates are likely lower, but experts still advise to be cautious.
“We’re not at a place to treat this as a cold,” Azra Ghani of Imperial College London told The New York Times.
A more updated study published by the CDC in January 2022 shows that the rate of death is a frightening 340 times higher in adults aged 85+ compared to 18- to 29-year-olds.
It’s clear that it’s not a question of the vaccine’s efficacy, but rather a matter of age. With age, the immune system’s fighting power declines, and the likelihood of having comorbidities increases. Unfortunately, the elderly just have more cards stacked against them.
So far, the queen is reportedly experiencing only “mild cold-like symptoms” but her recent health issues, frailty, and old age could add complications.
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