Severe COVID in older adults may be due to greater viral load, weaker immune response

Increased SARS-CoV-2 viral load, an impaired ability to clear the virus, and weaker immune and anti-inflammatory responses may be why older adults are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 and death than younger people, a University of California at San Francisco–led research team posits in Science Translational Medicine. The researchers also found that markers of illness severity such as the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 were most highly concentrated in the oldest patients. Adults older than 75 are 140 times more likely …