A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research that crunched decades of data on 50,000 employers and approximately 11.6 million workers found that the faster a company installs new software, the faster it loses older workers, reports the Virginian-Pilot . "Companies will say, 'We'll train you,' but people who feel they are close to retiring often say, 'I don't want to bother,'" noted Harvard University Professor Richard Freeman. The analysis did not cover employer motivation beyond boosting productivity, and it is unlikely that most companies would bring in new software just to scare off older workers. Yet such employees often find adapting to new systems to be especially frustrating. Freeman advises against quitting, as older people who leave for new jobs typically end up earning less pay, while anything that prompts them to claim Social Security before age 70 should be reconsidered. Adding credibility to the argument that older workers should not quit is findings that people 55 and older with experience in a field can learn new systems as quickly as younger peers. Older workers should also disregard stereotypes about diminished productivity and refuse to be intimidated by tech trainers.

A study by the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology found 90 percent of more than 2,200 adults 50 to 80 years old were cautious about using antibiotics, while nearly as many knew that overuse can nullify their efficacy, according to U.S. News & World Report . Meanwhile, almost 56 percent agreed that doctors overprescribe antibiotics, but about one-third believed wrongly that antibiotics could effectively treat colds or the flu, which are caused by viruses and not bacteria. Moreover, 13 percent of older adults who filled an antibiotic prescription said they had leftover drugs, even though patients are usually recommended to take all the medication. Close to two-thirds of respondents with leftover antibiotics said they retained them, and nearly 60 percent in that group said they did so in the event they needed the medication later. Doctors advise against this, and the poll's authors said people should see a physician for new signs of infection and get a new prescription for antibiotics if necessary. In addition, one in five survey respondents said they had taken antibiotics without consulting a healthcare professional at least once in the past, and most said they had taken their own leftover medications.

U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) reintroduced the Seniors Fraud Prevention Act last week, reports the Brainerd Dispatch . This marks the third time the bill has been proposed, and its goal is to help fight financial scams targeting seniors by directing the Federal Trade Commission to establish an office to educate them about fraud schemes while also improving the agency's monitoring and response to fraud complaints. "This bipartisan legislation is a critical step towards combating fraud targeting seniors by identifying scams and educating consumers to prevent more seniors from falling victim to these tactics," Klobuchar declared. Collins added that "raising awareness — particularly among older Americans who are more likely to be targeted by financial scams — is key to protecting seniors' hard-earned savings. The Seniors Fraud Prevention Act would help enhance fraud monitoring, increase consumer education, and strengthen the complaint tracking system to help prevent seniors from being robbed of their hard-earned savings through threatening and manipulative scams."

The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has approved Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) newly authorized COVID-19 vaccine for distribution. CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky gave the green light Sunday after the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted in support of adults getting the one-dose vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized use of the vaccine on Saturday based on its 66 percent effectiveness at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 in a large study that also demonstrated its safety. Shortly after, J&J said it had started shipping shots of its vaccine for allocation and distribution by the federal government. The shots are expected to start reaching U.S. vaccine providers in the coming days, with vaccinations to soon follow. The addition of the J&J vaccine to the previously FDA-cleared shots from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna should accelerate the mass vaccination campaign to bring the pandemic under control. J&J expects to distribute about 4 million doses immediately, and deliver another 16 million by the end of March, with 100 million doses shipped in total by the end of July.

Researchers suggest retina changes may predict development of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, and images of the eye could determine one's susceptibility, reports the Washington Post . Cedars-Sinai Professor Maya Koronyo-Hamaoui and colleagues have pioneered a method to visualize plaques associated with Alzheimer's in the retinal neurons of live patients with mild cognitive impairment, at a relatively cheap cost of about $285 a scan. Patients first ingest curcumin, a compound that gives turmeric its color, and which has a strong affinity for amyloid beta, the protein that constitutes plaques. Turmeric glows yellow in the presence of blue light. Meanwhile, a team at the University of Florida uses a fundus camera to capture high-resolution photos of the microscopic blood vessels in the back of the eye. Changes to the vessels in the brain are characteristic of both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and evidence strongly suggests that blood vessels in the retina mirror those changes. Early results imply that computer algorithms can use these images to differentiate Parkinson's patients from healthy controls with more than 70 percent accuracy.

A study in JAMA Network Open suggests that while Alzheimer's may develop later in women than men, women tend to deteriorate much faster, reports Medical Xpress . "These sex differences in cognitive decline might be due to differences in sex hormones, structural brain development, genetics, psychosocial factors, lifestyle factors, functional connectivity, and brain pathology," said University of Michigan Medical School Professor Deborah Levine. She added that this rapid deterioration might imply that women are at risk for a late or delayed diagnosis of cognitive decline. "For now, we need to factor these differences into how we test women and men for Alzheimer's in both the clinic and in research settings," said the Alzheimer's Association's Rebecca Edelmayer. "For example, there may be a need for more sensitive testing tools or different testing thresholds that correlate to unimpaired versus impaired cognition for women and men, so we can detect changes as early as possible."

Reuters reports that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will extend a trial of an experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug on patients suffering from COVID-19-related pneumonia to concentrate on seniors. The trial began last May, demonstrating that oilimab helps patients older than 70 with severe COVID-19 to get off mechanical ventilation or high-flow oxygen support faster. Following 28 days of treatment, 65.1 percent of older patients on the drug, combined with standard of care, were alive and no longer requiring respiratory support, versus 45.9 percent of patients who only received standard of care. "Given the profound impact this pandemic is having on seniors and the encouraging data we are sharing today, we are hopeful this finding will be replicated in the additional cohort," said GSK's Christopher Corsico. GSK is expecting the initial results of the extended trial in the third quarter of 2021, after which the company will engage in discussions with regulators if those findings are verified.

A report from Milbank Quarterly argues that the steep price that older Americans have paid during the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need to fortify the nation's system for long-term services and support, according to Healthcare Finance News . The authors propose universal coverage to support long-term care of all older Americans, to shield against financial disaster and discard a system in which only the poorest Americans can access coverage through Medicaid. They added that this would also stabilize the funding pipeline for providers. The report recommends establishing universal coverage for all Americans' long-term care needs via Medicare. "Universal coverage is essential to achieving greater equity in access and coverage, but it is also essential to the fiscal viability of the financing mechanism (e.g., everyone pays into the system)," the authors explained. They also advise founding an age-friendly health system, and improved collaboration between public health, health systems, and long-term care to protect older adults' well-being and safety. Near-term recommendations include enhanced disclosure of COVID-19 infections to address a "lack of publicly available information" nationally about infections among people receiving long-term services and support, and professional caregivers. The authors also said Medicaid reimbursement should provide resources to support independent long-term care and home care providers.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday announced that he has authorized the deployment of more than 1,100 National Guardsmen to help vaccinate homebound seniors against COVID-19, reports KXAN . As part of the "Save Our Seniors" initiative, Abbott said the National Guard will assist communities to get local seniors the proper COVID-19 doses. Some Guardsmen will help identify and register those requiring inoculation, while others will go to communities and administer the shots. Abbott explained that the effort is modeled after a program facilitated by the City of Corpus Christi, with the assistance of the local Meals on Wheels chapter and the city's fire department. Texas will commit 8,000 vaccines to the initiative for the first week, and the effort is scheduled to launch this coming Monday. Getting people vaccinated in rural counties is one of Abbott's priorities, and he said Guardsmen have been going to about five rural counties at a time "for several weeks now." He declared, "I want the people in those counties to know that we know about their concerns, and we know about their need."

A government advisory panel, called the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, is likely to give its approval later today to a third COVID-19 vaccine, reports USA Today . The committee's green light will pave the way to increased supply of the much-in-demand vaccines. This latest one is from Johnson & Johnson and offers a few advantages over the two that have been administered to 45 million Americans since mid-December. The J&J vaccine requires only one shot, whereas the others — from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — need two. Also, it can be kept refrigerated instead of frozen for longer, making it easier to distribute via physicians' offices and rural outposts. Finally, it may cause fewer side effects. The downside is it may be somewhat less effective. Following the advisory panel's expected recommendation, an emergency use authorization from the FDA's acting commissioner will likely follow within days.