Your questions, answered "What is the relative risk of severe infection by omicron in boosted people over 65? We keep hearing the risk is extremely low but I have not seen a statistic on the over-65 age group and am unsure how careful I need to be." — Janet in California You're in luck: Federal health officials recently released data that addresses your question, and it is reassuring. Before we delve into it, though, we have to give our standard disclaimer that we don't offer medical advice and you should talk to your doctor about your individual risk. That said, the data published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest that the risk of death from covid-19 among vaccinated and boosted people is quite low. The report focused on infections and deaths reported by 25 state and local health departments, stratified by vaccination status. The top-line finding was striking: In October and November, the weekly mortality rate among boosted people was 0.1 in 100,000. By comparison, the rate was 0.6 for vaccinated people without a booster dose and 7.8 for unvaccinated people. Encouragingly, the report also found that boosters most effectively increased protection in people 65 and older. In that demographic, weekly covid-related deaths in October and November were 0.5 per 100,000 people — or 5 in 1 million. Compare that with an incidence of 33.4 deaths per 100,000 people among unvaccinated people in the same age group. That finding suggests that, absent a severe underlying condition, boosted people 65 and older were at very low risk of dying of covid in the fall. Because of lags in reporting, the CDC said it couldn't evaluate covid-19 deaths in December, after the omicron variant became widespread. Omicron, which now makes up 99.9 percent of new infections in the United States, according to the CDC, appears to be inherently milder than the delta variant. Receiving a full vaccination regimen and a booster shot remains crucial to protection. In December, unvaccinated adults 65 and older had 52 times the risk of being hospitalized for covid than fully vaccinated and boosted people in the same age group, according to the CDC. With just about 4 in 10 fully vaccinated people having been boosted, the new data offers yet another reason for those who haven't gotten an additional dose to prioritize doing so. The federally owned website vaccines.gov can help you make an appointment. | 
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