Protecting our elderly U.S. president from Omicron with booster shots ... or not

Last update: Friday 4/29/22 

Let's suppose, dear reader, that like the vast majority of Americans, you are decades younger than 80. So why should you care about how well booster shots protect those of us who aren't? Well, one good reason is that President Biden is 79, which is close enough. Surely the president has very limited exposure to the virus in his day-to-day meetings and other activities, right? Wrong. Recent headlines indicate that Omicron has found cozy homes in the paneled offices along Washington, DC's rarified corridors of power, even within offices whose occupants are doubly boosted.

• "Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, tests positive for coronavirus.", Zolan Kanno-Youngs, NY Times, 3/22/22
  
  
• "At least 53 people have tested positive for the coronavirus after attending an A-list Washington dinner.", Alexandra E. Petri, NY Times, 4/8/22 ... Note: The article reports that the following V.I.P. attendees who have regular contact with President Biden were infected: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo; Attorney General Merrick B. Garland; Valerie Biden Owens, the president’s sister; and Representative Adam B. Schiff of California.
  
  
• "Vice President Harris Tests Positive for Coronavirus", Peter Baker and Aishvarya Kavi, NY Times, 4/26/22 ... Note: This article reports that VP Harris, 56 years old, is fully vaccinated and doubly boosted, and so is President Biden.

A Washington Post reporter focused on the president's questionable mitigations in the following article.

• "Mask, no mask: Biden’s pandemic practices vary as covid risks grow", Annie Linskey and Dan Diamond, Washington Post, 4/9/22

She found that:

• "Most of the time, President Biden doesn’t wear a mask, but occasionally he’s spotted with one. Sometimes his events are in crowded indoor rooms, other times outdoors."
  
• "When the last month is taken into account, Biden has come in contact with at least four people who tested positive either shortly after, or right before, interacting with him."
  
• "Over the past 14 days, Biden has had at least 18 events where he has interacted with members of the public, including Biden walking around in a crowded mess hall in Rzeszów, Poland, to buck up U.S. troops. That put him unmasked and indoors in a country that the CDC warns Americans to avoid and recommends those traveling to wear masks at all times indoors."

OK, so our almost 80 year old president has gone "new normal" and is not taking extra precautions to severely limit his exposure to the virus. How much risk is he really taking? It is highly unlikely that we will receive a fact-based response to this question from President Biden or from his staff. Why not? TRADITION!!!. There is a long bipartisan tradition of lying about the health and health risks of our presidents. Here's a link to a succinct recap:

• "The Long History of Official Lies about Presidential Health", Gene Healy, Cato Institute, 10/7/20

Case in point: the upcoming super gala White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. According to the following NY Times article, Dr. Fauci, an old guy, 81 years old, and President Biden's "Chief Medical Adviser", has advised himself not to attend "because of my individual assessment of my personal risk" ... whereas President Biden, a vigorous young blood of 79, will attend, but, perhaps, will wear a "mask" when he's not speaking, a "mask", not a properly fitted "respirator" (N95 or KN95), just a "mask". Clarification: the President won't inhale while he's speaking.

• "Before Washington’s ‘Nerd Prom,’ Lots of Risk-Benefit Calculation,  Sheryl Gay Stolberg, NY Times, 4/27/22

So what's a concerned citizen to believe? The data, of course.

CDC National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

When the editor of this blog visited the NCHS page from data.CDC.gov on Thursday 4/28/22, he entered the following keywords into the search box: covid age deaths vaccinations booster. The search engine returned links to 63 files. Two results most closely matched his keywords:

• Rates of COVID-19 Cases or Deaths by Age Group and Vaccination Status
  Age Group  = 5-11 years; 12-17 years; 18-29 years; 30-49 years; 50-64 years; 65-79 years; 80+ years
  But no data about boosters
  
  
• Rates of COVID-19 Cases or Deaths by Age Group and Vaccination Status and Booster Dose
  boosted_with_outcome and boosted_population
  But Age Group  = 12-17 years; 18-49 years; 50-64 years; 65+ years

Both files were obviously derived from the same underlying dataset. Unfortunately, neither file sheds light on the effectiveness of boosters for persons over 80 years old. 

• The first file contains needed data about outcomes for 80 years and older,  contains data about vaccinations, but nothing about boosters. 
  
  
• The second file contains data about outcomes for persons who receive boosters, but does not split the oldest age group, 65 and older, into lower and upper segments, e.g., 65-79 years and 80+ years

As discussed in a previous note note on this blog, (see "related notes" below), if these files were in a repository at the U.S. Census Bureau, the editor might have been able to trigger the generation of a new file that would be the same as the second file (above) ,but one that broke the 65+ age category into  65-79 years and 80+ years. Unfortunately, the CDC's repositories only enable users to obtain files that have been previously developed by the CDC's staff

Question: Given that the effectiveness of all COVID vaccines declines with the age of their recipients, why didn't the CDC staff break the oldest age group, those 65 and over, into at least two subgroups? There is no reason to believe that the decline stops at age 65, e.g., most 85 year olds are much weaker than most 65 year olds.

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Links to related notes on this blog:  

• "Moving another CDC "component" to the Census Bureau", Last update: 4/26/22