The Verge reports that bug-riddled websites and complex online tools used to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments across the United States are proving difficult for older adults. "The most vulnerable people are left behind even more so than if we hadn't used more of a technology-oriented solution," explains Ethan Basch at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Stanford Center on Longevity's Susan Nash adds that only about half of people older than 75 use the Internet at all, and she notes that "the great irony of this problem is that the people we need to reach with the vaccine and get information to are the ones who are least likely to be online." Meanwhile, many doctors switched to telehealth during the crisis, but people lacking Internet access — often older, non-white, and low income — are less likely to set up telehealth appointments and are at risk for lapses in care. Michigan Technological University Professor Charles Wallace points out that slapdash digital registration platforms will likely have components presenting difficulty to less tech-savvy people. "We can easily lose sight of how thin people's competencies are," he observes. Compounding the challenge for older adults is a lack of concrete guidelines for vaccination procedures, and little communication to support people who need assistance.

CNBC reports that the White House is releasing new guidelines that expand coronavirus vaccine eligibility to everyone 65 and older in addition to people with comorbid conditions. A senior administration official acknowledged the states' prioritization on inoculating healthcare workers and nursing communities has created a bottleneck. "States should not be waiting to complete phase 1a prioritization before proceeding to broader categories of eligibility," said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. About 53 million Americans who are 65 and older and 110 million people between 16 and 64 with comorbid conditions will now qualify to receive the vaccine if every state adopts the guidelines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As reported yesterday, the administration will stop holding back millions of doses reserved for the second round of shots of Pfizer and Moderna's two-dose vaccines.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced that starting Wednesday, any resident 70 or older can begin scheduling their appointment to receive COVID-19 vaccine regardless of health status or preexisting conditions, reports WLTX . "We know that those 70 and older are at the greatest risk of dying from COVID-19," McMaster said. "Making sure they have expedited access to the vaccine will help save lives." State officials are quite confident that most people in phase 1a of the state rollout plan who wish to be vaccinated have either received their shots or have scheduled appointments for inoculations. Phase 1a includes frontline workers in hospitals and emergency services, hospitalized patients 65 and older who have not tested positive for the virus, and long-term care community residents and staff. There are presently 146,500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in South Carolina, with 82,266 shots already administered, and 94,926 appointments scheduled by Phase 1a individuals to be immunized over the next several weeks. Additional steps to speed up access to South Carolinians will be followed based on the use of the vaccine, the number of appointments made, and supply data. DHEC's Brannon Traxler said current data estimates the COVID-19 mortality rate for residents 70 and older at roughly 655 deaths per 100,000 individuals, while about 37 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 individuals occur among those younger than 70.

The New Mexico Department of Health has published a broad schedule outlining the next phase of the state's COVID-19 vaccination plan, with older adults, people with chronic medical conditions, and front-line essential workers next to receive shots, reports the Albuquerque Journal . People 75 and older are prioritized, followed by adults with medical conditions that could hinder their recovery from the virus. Next in line would be a broader group of people who cannot work remotely, including family caregivers and employees in child care centers, schools, and grocery stores. The aim is to inoculate people who have the most person-to-person contact. The populace covered by the state's round exceeds current dose supply, so New Mexico opted to start with older adults and those with preexisting conditions before moving to front-line workers.

Eli Lilly reported that its experimental Alzheimer's drug donanemab slowed the decline in memory and ability to perform daily living activities by 32 percent after 18 months in a small trial, according to the Wall Street Journal . This is compared to participants who received a placebo. Although donanemab did not stop the disease, if the findings hold up, it would suggest the drug can at least slow Alzheimer's progression. Lilly aims to confirm these findings through a larger, 500-subject study. Lilly's Daniel Skovronsky said donanemab was designed to clear amyloid plaques in addition to blocking their accumulation. Investigators also administered subjects a much higher dose of donanemab than researchers had given of earlier anti-amyloid medications. For donanemab's Phase 2 trial, the team enrolled subjects whose brain images indicated both amyloid buildup and tangles of the tau protein. Twenty-seven percent of subjects on donanemab showed signs of fluid accrual in the brain, with 6 percent experiencing symptoms.

A study in Sports Medicine compared the results of women and men ages 50 to 90 who started resistance training exercise programs, and learned that while men were more likely to gain absolute muscle size, their gains were equal to women's relative to body size, reports HealthDay News . "Historically, people tended to believe that men adapted to a greater degree from resistance training compared to women," said Amanda Hagstrom at the University of New South Wales. "The differences we found primarily relate to how we look at the data — that is, absolutely or relatively. 'Absolute' looks at the overall gains, while 'relative' is a percentage based on their body size," The researchers reviewed more than 650 older men and 750 older women across 30 resistance training studies, and most subjects had no previous resistance training. "Older men might benefit from higher intensity programs to improve their absolute upper and lower body strength," Hagstrom noted. "But older women might benefit from higher overall exercise volumes — that is, more weekly repetitions — to increase their relative and absolute lower body strength."

Employment in health care occupations is expected to grow 15 percent in the next decade, well ahead of 3.7 percent overall growth, according to employment projections released by the U.S. Department of Labor and cited by the Wall Street Journal . The aging baby boomer population will drive the growth. The number of nursing practitioners and physician-assistant jobs is expected to grow by 50 percent and 31 percent, respectively. Furthermore, by 2029, more than a quarter of the U.S. workforce will be 55 or older — an increase from 23.4 percent last year. The digital economy will drive demand for high-technology workers between now and then. Computer and math occupations is poised to grow 12.1 percent in the next decade — three times faster than the overall workforce. Meanwhile, the office and administrative support sector is projected to lose nearly one million jobs. Finally, an estimated 420,000 production jobs could be lost due to robotic technology, and e-commerce could eliminate 270,000 cashier jobs.

Dayspring Assisted Living Home in Mansfield, Ohio, has installed a "hugging door" to help residents isolated during the pandemic safely engage with family and other visitors, reports Spectrum News 1 . Dayspring Executive Director Michelle Swank had maintenance personnel build the door, which has a flexible plastic membrane to keep visitors and residents protected as they embrace each other. According to Patty Gray, whose father is a Dayspring resident, the door has had a beneficial effect. "I'm so thankful for it because it's changed his attitude," she says. "He had gotten so down from not having any contact, so this really was a great experience for him."

KBRZ-TV reports that the state of Louisiana on Monday widened the distribution of coronavirus vaccines to seniors, boosting the doses available to people aged 70 and older in the second week of eligibility and expanding sites where they can get shots to every parish. The state Department of Health's list of pharmacies offering the vaccine to seniors, which numbered 107 last week, increased to 209 across the 64 parishes this week. Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration also was directing thousands more doses to the facilities for vaccinations of people 70 and up, and a broader group of healthcare workers than those who qualified in the first weeks of immunizations. "Eligible residents must contact a participating provider and make an appointment with them. Patients who arrive without an appointment will not be vaccinated," the health department stated. Meanwhile, some hospital systems are reaching out to senior patients to offer them surplus Pfizer vaccine doses they received for their workers, many of whom have not yet agreed to get inoculated.

The Trump administration will recommend giving a coronavirus vaccine to everyone over 65 in the country, in an attempt to accelerate lagging distribution as COVID-19 deaths have soared to their highest levels since the pandemic began, reports The Hill . The move is part of a host of changes intended to speed up the pace of inoculations and make more vaccines available to the public. In addition to the eligibility changes, health officials are also adding more community centers and pharmacies to the list of places where people can be vaccinated. The Department of Health and Human Services will also no longer hold back vaccine doses to ensure that those who receive a first dose will have a second dose in reserve. Instead, all existing doses will be sent to states to provide initial inoculations. Second doses are to be provided by new waves of manufacturing. The sweeping changes are a major departure from current administration policy, and align with a plan unveiled by President-elect Joe Biden to release nearly every available vaccine dose. The Trump administration has been holding back half of the available doses to ensure there is enough supply for everyone who is getting a first dose to later get a second dose as well. "We now believe that our manufacturing is predictable enough that we can ensure second doses are available for people from ongoing production," said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. "So everything is now available to our states and our health care providers."