President Biden, 81, tests positive for COVID. For older people, the disease is still serious.
President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 just hours after giving a speech at the NAACP's annual convention in Las Vegas.
"He is vaccinated and boosted, and he is experiencing mild symptoms," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. He presented with upper respiratory symptoms on Wednesday afternoon, along with a runny nose, dry cough and general malaise, according to Dr. Kevin O'Connor, Biden's doctor. "His symptoms remain mild, his respiratory rate is normal at 16, his temperature is normal at 97.8, and his pulse oximetry is normal at 97%," he said. On Thursday, O'Connor shared that the president is "still experiencing mild upper respiratory symptoms." He doesn't have a fever and his vital signs are normal.
Because the president, at age 81, is considered high-risk, he will be taking Paxlovid, an antiviral medication. Biden will be taking the standard dosage, three pills twice a day, for five days, O'Connor said. He flew to Delaware Wednesday to self-isolate and plans to carry out his duties during that time.
This health news comes after an interview Biden gave to BET in which he said he would consider withdrawing his candidacy “if I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem." While boarding Air Force One on Wednesday, Biden told reporters traveling with him, “I feel good.”
Biden tested positive for COVID the first time on July 21, 2022. After testing negative, he then was positive again nine days later in a so-called Paxlovid rebound case, which is a known risk.
COVID and age
"COVID remains very serious for older people. In fact, the older you are the more dangerous it is," Dr. David Smith, head of the University of California at San Diego’s division of infectious diseases, tells Yahoo Life.
Older individuals are more at risk for severe consequences of COVID for two reasons: they are more likely to have comorbidities (meaning having other medical conditions) and their bodies may not be as well-equipped to fight off infection, Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, tells Yahoo Life. "Older individuals don’t always mount a robust immune response to vaccination, boosting or infection," he says.
Generally speaking, older adults face far higher risks of dying of COVID compared with their younger counterparts. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 81% of those fatally infected in the U.S. have been over the age of 65, making the risks of death 97 times higher than the danger posed to people between ages 18 and 29, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But as the pandemic has worn on, rising rates of immunity from infection and vaccination coupled with falling rates of infection have seen odds improve for older Americans. COVID accounted for more than 530 out of every 100,000 deaths among people Biden's age (75-84) in the first quarter of 2022, according to the CDC. As of the agency's latest data, that figure was down to about 84 out of every 100,000 deaths.
Nonetheless, COVID remains a serious concern for older adults, who, along with those who are immunocompromised, are at "very high risk," according to American Medical Association member Dr. Devang Sanghavi. He added: "Older adults have outsized comorbidities because as you age, you tend to get chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, your kidneys are not working as well or your liver. So all those comorbidities added to the phenomena of waning immunity as you age leads to you getting an outsized physical manifestation, which is much more severe if you compare it to a younger, healthier individual."
According to the latest White House report on Biden's health from February, he has relatively few relevant comorbidities. The president has high cholesterol and a heart rhythm condition, called atrial fibrillation, but both are "stable," according to the report.
What should older adults do if they test positive
"What a person does when they test positive for COVID is dependent upon their risk factors for severe disease," says Adalja. "If one has a risk factor for severe disease, they should discuss getting an antiviral with their physician. A person should also isolate until their fever is absent for 24 hours and they are feeling better. They should also notify their close contacts about their test."
Smith says that therapies like Paxlovid, Veklury and Lagevrio still work for the current COVID variants. "If someone has risk for bad COVID like being over 65 years old, heart or kidney disease or being treated for cancer, then I think these therapies for COVID are very useful for keeping people out of the hospital or from dying."
Why vaccines are especially important for older adults
It's important for those at risk for severe outcomes of COVID-19 in particular to get vaccinated, according to the CDC. According to the CDC, adults 65 and older are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, noting that more than half of COVID-19 hospitalizations during October 2023 to December 2023 were in this age group. The CDC recommends that adults 65 and older get an additional dose of the updated 2024 COVID-19 vaccine to have added protection.
Taking steps to prevent COVID is the same regardless of age. "Staying current on vaccines and boosters is number one," Smith says.
