This article was published on Thursday, December 17, 2020 in Kaiser Health News.
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Imagine this: Your elderly mother, who has dementia, is in a nursing home and COVID-19 vaccines are due to arrive in a week or two.
You think she should be vaccinated, having heard the vaccine is effective in generating an immune response in older adults. Your brother disagrees. He worries that development of the vaccine was rushed and doesn t want your mother to be among the first people to get it.
These kinds of conflicts are likely to arise as COVID vaccines are rolled out to long-term care facilities across the country.
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Will all older adults in long-term care understand the details of the vaccines and be able to consent to getting them?
Long-term care residents’ participation in the vaccination effort is clouded by a significant complication: More than half have cognitive impairment or dementia.
Imagine this: Your elderly mother, who has dementia, is in a nursing home and COVID-19 vaccines are due to arrive in a week or two.
You think she should be vaccinated, having heard the vaccine is effective in generating an immune response in older adults. Your brother disagrees. He worries that development of the vaccine was rushed and doesn’t want your mother to be among the first people to get it.