Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine this week announced a testing change for staff in nursing and assisted living communities during a COVID-19 briefing, reports WTOV-9 . "The new order . . . will exempt fully vaccinated employees of nursing . . . and assisted living communities from requirement that they be tested," he decreed. DeWine added that employees not fully vaccinated must be tested twice weekly. A person is not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after their second shot of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, and two weeks after their single dose of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine.

President Biden on Tuesday announced a new goal to administer at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to 70 percent of U.S. adults by July 4, reports National Public Radio . The White House also is targeting 160 million adults fully vaccinated by then, in order to upgrade the level of immunity in the nation to the point where the virus has less of an opportunity to spread and so that more public health restrictions can be lifted. More than 246 million doses have been administered across the United States as of Monday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more than 56 percent of the adult population has received at least one dose, while 40 percent has received two doses. The July 4 goal would entail administering about 100 million shots over the next 60 days, which administration officials said would acknowledge that those most eager to get inoculated have already done so. The administration informed governors that the allocation system for vaccines will be modified, so that states can now choose whether they want all of their allocation, or place some doses into a federal pool. States that need more doses based on demand could tap that pool.

Susan L. Brown, author of "Families in America," writes on NBC News that the impending divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates is emblematic of trends in the United States overall, with splits between couples 50 and older — gray divorce — on the rise. That divorce rate doubled between 1990 and 2010, climbed from 0.5 percent to 1 percent annually, and has since leveled out at this new high. A generation ago, less than 10 percent of divorces involved a spouse over age 50, whereas today more than one in four people getting divorced in the U.S. are older than 50. In comparison, the overall divorce rate has been slowly but steadily falling, with rates among young people plunging. Brown says gray divorce is often not triggered by one event, but rather precipitated by couples drifting apart. She also observes that this trend likely reflects changing definitions and expectations of marital success, which "can be challenging to sustain as relationships evolve over time." In a study Brown co-authored in the Journal of Family Issues , she noted that "adults over age 50 today are more accepting of divorce than younger people. Nearly two-thirds agree that divorce is the best solution when couples can't work out their marriage problems versus fewer than half among younger adults."

WANE reports that the Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA) is inviting older adults across the country to receive a free virtual memory screening in May as part of Older Americans Month. A trained professional will conduct screening through secure video conference technology on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The foundation said if memory problems are caused by something like Alzheimer's disease, early detection can enable the person to start medications sooner, get involved in a clinical trial, and more proactively develop their care plan. "The risk of developing Alzheimer's disease increases with age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meaning it's especially important for older Americans to be vigilant about their brain health," said AFA President and CEO Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr. "As we celebrate older Americans and how their life experiences and contributions strengthen our communities, it's also a good time to encourage them to contribute to their own health by getting a memory screening."

A growing body of research suggests exercise could slow the progression of dementia, with aerobic exercise appearing to be most effective, reports Discover . Exercise is accompanied by an increase in the protein BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which is thought to promote the production of new brain cells and minimize the death of existing ones — especially in the hippocampus, a key memory center. Furthermore, as the heart pumps faster and blood flow increases, more oxygen penetrates the brain. Meta-analyses of various trials investigating exercise's potential benefits determined that the risk of dementia decreases with midlife exercise. Some studies have concluded that as little as six to 12 months of exercise is sufficient to recover brain power for people already with dementia, or the less severe mild cognitive impairment preceding it. However, the most effective guard against dementia is combining physical activity with a nutritious diet, adequate sleep, social engagement, and hobbies that maintain mental alertness, like reading or solving crossword puzzles.

A study in IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering found a new ankle exoskeleton developed at Stanford University allowed users to walk an average 42 percent faster than when they simply wore normal shoes, reports Futurity . The device attaches around the shin and into a running shoe, with power provided externally by motors and controlled by an algorithm. The exoskeleton's speed-optimized mode also lowered energy use by about 2 percent per meter traveled, although this reduction varied widely from person to person. The investigators are also intrigued by the possibility of future exoskeleton designs reducing pain caused by weight on joints, or improving balance. "A 40% increase in speed is more than the difference between younger adults and older adults," said Stanford Professor Steve Collins. "So, it's possible that devices like this could not only restore but enhance self-selected walking speed for older individuals and that's something that we're excited to test next."

A report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that anxiety was responsible for dozens of adverse reactions to the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine, and not the vaccine itself, according to The Hill . The CDC analyzed clusters of anxiety-related events, with 64 incidents out of 8,624 doses administered reported by five mass vaccination sites across five different states. The Associated Press identified the states where the incidents happened as California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, and North Carolina. Researchers said these anxiety-related cases "can occur after any vaccination" if a recipient has a physical reaction within 15 minutes of inoculation due to worries about getting the vaccine. These reactions are not related to the rare incidents of blood clots that led the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration to recommend suspending administration of the J&J vaccine across the United States. Those who had anxiety-related events most commonly cited light-headedness or dizziness, sweating, fainting, nausea or vomiting, and hypotension. The researchers urged vaccine providers to be "aware" of such incidents after inoculation, and to observe all recipients for any reactions for at least 15 minutes after the shot was administered.

The New York Times is reporting that herd immunity, or the level of vaccination required to eliminate coronavirus, is becoming less and less likely as the pathogen continues to mutate and the pace of immunization slows. U.S. public health experts initially had hoped to reach the targeted threshold of 60 percent to 70 percent of the population by this summer. Experts now calculate the herd immunity threshold to be at least 80 percent. If it turns out that immunized people can still spread coronavirus, another upward adjustment will be needed. Therefore, instead of eradication, scientists and public health experts expect the virus to linger for years to come. They do, however, believe the number of people who fall ill or die from it will probably decline significantly and that it will evolve into a seasonal occurrence, like influenza, eventually becoming more like a common cold.

A new commentary by Washington State University College of Nursing Professors Catherine Van Son and Deborah Eti in Frontiers in Medicine proposes that a pulse oximeter is more useful than taking temperature to check for COVID infection in older adults, reports EurekAlert . Their paper said baseline temperatures are lower in older adults, which means a fever may be missed using the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's standard definition of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. Moreover, some COVID-19 patients have no visible signs of low oxygen levels, like shortness of breath, yet have oxygen saturation under 90 percent — which can be associated with very poor outcomes. Van Son and Eti recommend considering wide use of inexpensive, portable pulse oximeters in COVID screenings of older adults, as they can detect changes in oxygen saturation without other infection indications. They concluded, "Earlier interventions could help patients avoid highly invasive procedures (i.e., intubation) and improve the allocation of scarce healthcare resources."

The Northwest Clinical Research Center in Bellevue, Wash., is set to trial a potential Alzheimer's disease treatment that shows promise, reports the Bellevue Reporter . The therapy activates a naturally-occurring pathway, HGF/MET, to help deteriorated neural cells regenerate and improve cognitive function. The center's Arif Khan said the small molecule that triggers this mechanism, ATH-1017, should make neural cells more "young and active." Athira Pharma's Maggie Beller said the six-month trial will include up to 300 participants, with half receiving the daily treatment and the other half receiving a placebo. The treatment will involve daily injections into patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. If the data from this study proves positive, ATH-1017 could be investigated in both more severe and earlier-stage Alzheimer's patients.