Health

Many Older People Embrace Vaccines. Research Is Proving Them Right.

Published

9 months ago

June 15, 2025

Many Older People Embrace Vaccines. Research Is Proving Them Right.

Kim Beckham, an insurance agent in Victoria, Texas, had seen friends suffer so badly from shingles that she wanted to receive the first approved shingles vaccine as soon as it became available, even if she had to pay for it out of pocket.

Her doctor and several pharmacies turned her down because she was below the recommended age at the time, which was 60. So in 2016, she celebrated her 60th birthday at her local CVS.

“I was there when they opened,” Ms. Beckham recalled. After her Zostavax shot, she said, “I felt really relieved.” She has since received the newer, more effective shingles vaccine, as well as the pneumonia shot, the R.S.V. vaccine, annual flu shots and all recommended Covid vaccinations.

Some older people are really eager to be vaccinated.

Robin Wolaner, 71, a retired publisher in Sausalito, Calif., has been known to badger friends who delay getting recommended shots, sending them relevant medical studies. “I’m sort of hectoring,” she acknowledged.

Deana Hendrickson, 66, who provides daily care for three young grandsons in Los Angeles, sought an additional M.M.R. shot, though she was vaccinated as a child, in case her immunity to measles was waning.

For older adults who express more confidence in vaccine safety than younger groups, the past few months have brought some welcome research. Studies have found important benefits from a newer vaccine and enhanced versions of older ones, and one vaccine may confer a major bonus that nobody had foreseen.

The new studies are coming at a fraught political moment. The nation’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has long disparaged certain vaccines, calling them unsafe and saying that the government officials who regulate them are compromised and corrupt.

This week, the secretary fired a panel of scientific advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, replacing them with some who have been skeptical of vaccines. But so far, Mr. Kennedy has not tried to curb access to the shots for older Americans.

The evidence that vaccines are beneficial remains overwhelming.

The phrase “Vaccines are not just for kids anymore” has become a favorite for Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

“The population over 65, which often suffers the worst impact of respiratory viruses and others, now has the benefit of vaccines that can prevent much of that serious illness,” he said.

Take influenza, which annually sends from 140,000 to 710,000 older people to hospitals and is fatal in 10 percent of them.

For about 15 years, the C.D.C. has approved several enhanced flu vaccines for people over 65. More effective than the standard formulation, they either contain higher levels of the antigen that builds protection against the virus or incorporate an adjuvant that creates a stronger immune response. Or they’re recombinant vaccines, developed through a different method, with higher antigen levels.

In a meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, “all the enhanced vaccine products were superior to the standard dose for preventing hospitalizations,” said Rebecca Morgan, a health research methodologist at Case Western Reserve University and an author of the study.

Compared with the standard flu shot, the enhanced vaccines reduced the risk of hospitalization from the flu by 11 to 18 percent in older adults. The C.D.C. advises adults over 65 to receive the enhanced vaccines, as many already do.

More good news: Vaccines to prevent respiratory syncytial virus (R.S.V.) in people over 60 are performing admirably.

R.S.V. is the most common cause of hospitalization for infants, and it also poses significant risks to older people. “Season in and season out,” Dr. Schaffner said, “it produces outbreaks of serious respiratory illness that rivals influenza.”

Because the Food and Drug Administration first approved an R.S.V. vaccine in 2023, the 2023-24 season provided “the first opportunity to see it in a real-world context,” said Dr. Pauline Terebuh, an epidemiologist at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and an author of a recent study in the journal JAMA Network Open.

In analyzing electronic health records for almost 800,000 patients, the researchers found the vaccines to be 75 percent effective against acute infection, meaning illness that was serious enough to send a patient to a health care provider.

The vaccines were 75 percent effective in preventing emergency room or urgent care visits, and 75 percent effective against hospitalization, both among those aged 60 to 74 and those older.

Immunocompromised patients, despite having a somewhat lower level of protection from the vaccine, will also benefit from it, Dr. Terebuh said. As for adverse effects, the study found a very low risk for Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition that causes muscle weakness and that typically follows an infection, in about 11 cases per one million doses of vaccine. That, she said, “shouldn’t dissuade people.”

The C.D.C. now recommends R.S.V. vaccination for people 75 and older, and for those 60 to 74 if they’re at higher risk of severe illness (from heart disease, say).

As data from the 2024-25 season becomes available, researchers hope to determine if the vaccine will remain a one-and-done, or whether immunity will require repeated vaccination.

People over 65 express the greatest confidence in vaccine safety of any adult group, a KFF survey found in April. More than 80 percent said they were “very “or “somewhat confident” about M.M.R., shingles, pneumonia and flu shots.

Although the Covid vaccine drew lower support among all adults, more than two-thirds of older adults expressed confidence in its safety.

Even skeptics might become excited about one possible benefit of the shingles vaccine: This spring, Stanford researchers reported that over seven years, vaccination against shingles reduced the risk of dementia by 20 percent, a finding that made headlines.

Biases often undermine observational studies that compare vaccinated with unvaccinated groups. “People who are healthier and more health-motivated are the ones who get vaccinated,” said Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer, an epidemiologist at the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience at Stanford and lead author of the study.

“It’s hard to know whether this is cause and effect,” he said, “or whether they’re less likely to develop dementia anyway.”

So the Stanford team took advantage of a “natural experiment” when the first shingles vaccine, Zostavax, was introduced in Wales. Health officials set a strict age cutoff: People who turned 80 on or before Sept. 1, 2013, weren’t eligible for vaccination, but those even slightly younger were eligible.

In the sample of nearly 300,000 adults whose birthdays fell close to either side of that date, almost half of the eligible group received the vaccine, but virtually nobody in the older group did.

“Just as in a randomized trial, these comparison groups should be similar in every way,” Dr. Geldsetzer explained. A substantial reduction in dementia diagnoses in the vaccine-eligible group, with a much stronger protective effect in women, therefore constitutes “more powerful and convincing evidence,” he said.

The team also found reduced rates of dementia after shingles vaccine was introduced in Australia and other countries. “We keep seeing this in one data set after another,” Dr. Geldsetzer said.

In the United States, where a more potent vaccine, Shingrix, became available in 2017 and supplanted Zostavax, Oxford investigators found an even stronger effect.

By matching almost 104,000 older Americans who received a first dose of the new vaccine (full immunization requires two) with a group that had received the earlier formulation, they found delayed onset of dementia in the Shingrix group.

How a shingles vaccine might reduce dementia remains unexplained. Scientists have suggested that viruses themselves may contribute to dementia, so suppressing them could protect the brain. Perhaps the vaccine revs up the immune system in general or affects inflammation.

“I don’t think anybody knows,” said Dr. Paul Harrison, a psychiatrist at Oxford and a senior author of the study. But, he added, “I’m now convinced there’s something real here.”

Shingrix, now recommended for adults over 50, is 90 percent effective in preventing shingles and the lingering nerve pain that can result. In 2021, however, only 41 percent of older Americans had received one dose of either shingles vaccine.

A connection to dementia will require further research, and Dr. Geldsetzer is trying to raise philanthropic funding for a clinical trial.

And “if you needed another reason to get this vaccine,” Dr. Schaffner said, “here it is.”

Click to comment

Health

ChatGPT could miss your serious medical emergency, new study suggests

Published

1 hour ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

ChatGPT could miss your serious medical emergency, new study suggests

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Artificial intelligence has been touted as a boon to healthcare, but a new study has revealed its potential shortcomings when it comes to giving medical advice.

In January, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, the medical-focused version of the popular chatbot tool.

The company introduced the tool as “a dedicated experience that securely brings your health information and ChatGPT’s intelligence together, to help you feel more informed, prepared and confident navigating your health.”

But researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that the tool failed to recommend emergency care for a “significant number” of serious medical cases.

The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine on Feb. 23, aimed to explore how ChatGPT Health — which is reported to have about 40 million users daily — handles situations where people are asking whether to seek emergency care.

Artificial intelligence has been touted as a boon to healthcare, but a new study has revealed its potential shortcomings when it comes to giving medical advice. (iStock)

“Right now, no independent body evaluates these products before they reach the public,” lead author Ashwin Ramaswamy, M.D., instructor of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, told Fox News Digital.

“We wouldn’t accept that for a medication or a medical device, and we shouldn’t accept it for a product that tens of millions of people are using to make health decisions.”

Emergency scenarios

The team created 60 clinical scenarios across 21 medical specialties, ranging from minor conditions to true medical emergencies.

Three independent physicians then assigned an appropriate level of urgency for each case, based on published clinical practice guidelines in 56 medical societies.

WOMAN SAYS CHATGPT SAVED HER LIFE BY HELPING DETECT CANCER, WHICH DOCTORS MISSED

The researchers conducted 960 interactions with ChatGPT Health to see how the tool responded, taking into account gender, race, barriers to care and “social dynamics.”

While “clear-cut emergencies” — such as stroke or severe allergy — were generally handled well, the researchers found that the tool “under-triaged” many urgent medical issues.

The team created 60 clinical scenarios across 21 medical specialties, ranging from minor conditions to true medical emergencies. (iStock)

For example, in one asthma scenario, the system acknowledged that the patient was showing early signs of respiratory failure — but still recommended waiting instead of seeking emergency care.

“ChatGPT Health performs well in medium-severity cases, but fails at both ends of the spectrum — the cases where getting it right matters most,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital. “It under-triaged over half of genuine emergencies and over-triaged roughly two-thirds of mild cases that clinical guidelines say should be managed at home.”

PARENTS FILE LAWSUIT ALLEGING CHATGPT HELPED THEIR TEENAGE SON PLAN SUICIDE

Under-triage can be life-threatening, the doctor noted, while over-triage can overwhelm emergency departments and delay care for those in real need.

Researchers also identified inconsistencies in suicide risk alerts. In some cases, it directed users to the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in lower-risk scenarios, and in others, it failed to offer that recommendation even when a person discussed suicidal ideations.

“ChatGPT Health performs well in medium-severity cases, but fails at both ends of the spectrum.”

“The suicide guardrail failure was the most alarming,” study co-author Girish N. Nadkarni, M.D., chief AI officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, told Fox News Digital.

ChatGPT Health is designed to show a crisis intervention banner when someone describes thoughts of self-harm, the researcher noted.

OpenAI launched ChatGPT Health, the medical-focused version of the popular chatbot tool, in January 2026. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“We tested it with a 27-year-old patient who said he’d been thinking about taking a lot of pills,” Nadkarni said. “When he described his symptoms alone, the banner appeared 100% of the time. Then we added normal lab results — same patient, same words, same severity — and the banner vanished.”

“A safety feature that works perfectly in one context and completely fails in a nearly identical context … is a fundamental safety problem.”

CHATGPT HEALTH PROMISES PRIVACY FOR HEALTH CONVERSATIONS

The researchers were also surprised by the social influence aspect.

“When a family member in the scenario said ‘it’s nothing serious’ — which happens all the time in real life — the system became nearly 12 times more likely to downplay the patient’s symptoms,” Nadkarni said. “Everyone has a spouse or parent who tells them they’re overreacting. The AI shouldn’t be agreeing with them during a potential emergency.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Open AI, creator of ChatGPT, requesting comment.

Physicians react

Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, called the new study “important.”

“It underlines the principle that while large language models can triage clear-cut emergencies, they have much more trouble with nuanced situations,” Siegel, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.

ChatGPT and other LLMs can be helpful tools, a doctor said, but they “should not be used to give medical direction.” (iStock)

“This is where doctors and clinical judgment come in — knowing the nuances of a patient’s history and how they report symptoms and their approach to health.”

ChatGPT and other LLMs can be helpful tools, Siegel said, but they “should not be used to give medical direction.”

“Machine learning and continued input of data can help, but will never compensate for the essential problem – human judgment is needed to decide whether something is a true emergency or not.”

BREAKTHROUGH BLOOD TEST COULD SPOT DOZENS OF CANCERS BEFORE SYMPTOMS APPEAR

Dr. Harvey Castro, an emergency physician and AI expert in Texas, echoed the importance of the study, calling it “exactly the kind of independent safety evaluation we need.”

“Innovation moves fast. Oversight has to move just as fast,” Castro, who also did not work on the study, told Fox News Digital. “In healthcare, the most dangerous mistakes happen at the extremes, when something looks mild but is actually catastrophic. That’s where clinical judgment matters most, and where AI must be stress-tested.”

Study limitations

The researchers acknowledged some potential limitations in the study design.

“We used physician-written clinical scenarios rather than real patient conversations, and we tested at a single point in time — these systems update frequently, so performance may change,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES

Additionally, most of the missed emergencies happened in situations where the danger depended on how the condition was changing over time. It’s not clear whether the same problem would happen with acute medical emergencies.

Because the system had to choose just one fixed urgency category, the test may not reflect the more nuanced advice it might give in a back-and-forth conversation, the researchers noted.

ChatGPT Health is designed to show a crisis intervention banner when someone describes thoughts of self-harm. (iStock)

Also, the study wasn’t large enough to confidently detect small differences in how recommendations might vary by race or gender.

“We need continuous auditing, not one-time studies,” Castro noted. “These systems update frequently, so evaluation must be ongoing.”

‘Don’t wait’

The researchers emphasized the importance of seeking immediate care for serious issues.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER

“If something feels seriously wrong — chest pain, difficulty breathing, a severe allergic reaction, thoughts of self-harm — go to the emergency department or call 988,” Ramaswamy advised. “Don’t wait for an AI to tell you it’s OK.”

The researchers noted that they support the use of AI to improve healthcare access, and that they didn’t conduct the study to “tear down the technology.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“These tools can be genuinely useful for the right things — understanding a diagnosis you’ve already received, looking up what your medications do and their side effects, or getting answers to questions that didn’t get fully addressed in a short doctor’s visit,” Ramaswamy said.

“That’s a very different use case from deciding whether you need emergency care. Treat them as a complement to your doctor, not a replacement.”

“This study doesn’t mean we abandon AI in healthcare.”

Castro agreed that the benefits of AI health tools should be weighed against the risks.

“AI health tools can increase access, reduce unnecessary visits and empower patients with information,” he said. “They are not inherently unsafe, but they are not yet substitutes for clinical judgment.”

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ

“This study doesn’t mean we abandon AI in healthcare,” he went on. “It means we mature it. Independent testing and stronger guardrails will determine whether AI becomes a safety net or a liability.”

Melissa Rudy is senior health editor and a member of the lifestyle team at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to melissa.rudy@fox.com.

Health

Diabetes surge among Americans could be driven by ‘healthy’ breakfasts, doctor warns

Published

14 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Diabetes surge among Americans could be driven by ‘healthy’ breakfasts, doctor warns

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Americans consume foods every day that are marketed as “healthy,” when they could be quietly destroying their health, one doctor warns.

Dr. Mark Hyman, physician and co-founder of Function Health in California, says that much of America’s daily diet is filled with unhealthy ingredients.

“The amount of refined starches and sugars that are everywhere is just staggering to me, given what we know about how harmful they are,” he shared in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I don’t think people really understand.”

Hyman, author of the new book “Food Fix Uncensored,” said he’s “astounded” by what people are eating, especially for breakfast.

“People just eat sugar for breakfast,” he said. “They have muffins, they have bagels, they have croissants, they have sugar-sweetened coffees and teas.”

Dr. Mark Hyman is the author of the new book “Food Fix Uncensored.” (Function Health; Little, Brown Spark)

In addition to the traditionally sweet options for breakfast, some cereal brands and breakfast staples have adopted new “protein-packed” menu items and products, following health trends that encourage eating more protein.

“Highly processed food is not food.”

“Now, we’re seeing this halo of protein in certain things,” Hyman said, mentioning that many protein smoothies are “full of sugar.”

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER

The doctor also noted that some popular cereals are now marketed as having protein in them. “My joke is, if it has a health claim on the label, it’s definitely bad for you,” he said.

Instead of starting the day with a “quick fix” or processed food, Hyman suggests choosing whole sources of protein and fat for breakfast, adding that “if there’s a little carbohydrate in there, it’s fine.”

More products marketed as “high protein” have cropped up on supermarket shelves. (iStock)

For his own breakfast, Hyman said he has a protein shake with whey protein, avocado and frozen berries. Eggs and avocados are also a great protein-and-fat combo option, he added.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES

“It’s not that complicated — people need to just think about their breakfast not being dessert,” he said. “No wonder we’re in this cycle of obesity and diabetes. One in three teenage kids now has type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes. That’s just criminal.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Instead of counting calories and being in a caloric deficit as a way to lose weight and stay healthy, Hyman instead suggests focusing on how certain foods make you feel and how they impact your health.

“When you look at the way in which different types of calories affect your biology, you can just choose what you’re eating, and then you don’t have to worry about how much,” he told Fox News Digital.

In addition to the traditionally sweet options for breakfast, some cereal brands and breakfast staples have adopted new “protein-packed” menu items and products. (iStock)

“For example, if you eat a diet that doesn’t cause your insulin to spike — which is low in starch and sugar, higher in protein and fat — you won’t develop those swings in blood sugar, you won’t develop the spikes in insulin, you won’t deposit hungry fat … You will break that cycle.”

People are more likely to “self-regulate when they eat real food” instead of processed foods, which “bypasses the normal mechanisms of satiety, fullness and brain chemistry,” according to Hyman.

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ

“Ultraprocessed food and junk food or highly processed food is not food,” he said. “It doesn’t support the health and well-being of an organism. It doesn’t do that. It does the opposite.”

Angelica Stabile is a lifestyle reporter for Fox News Digital.

Health

Scientists make startling discovery when examining prostate cancer tissue

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Scientists make startling discovery when examining prostate cancer tissue

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Small fragments of plastic were found in the tumors of most prostate cancer patients, according to a new study from NYU Langone Health.

In past studies, microplastics have been found in almost every human organ and in bodily fluids, but their impact on human health still isn’t fully understood.

The researchers analyzed tissue samples from 10 patients with prostate cancer who underwent surgery to remove the entire organ.

Using visuals of both benign samples and tumor samples, as well as specialized equipment, the scientists identified plastic particles in 90% of the tumor samples and 70% of benign tissue samples, according to the study press release.

In past studies, microplastics were found in almost every single human organ along with bodily fluids, even the placenta. (iStock)

The cancerous tissue contained on average more than double the amount of plastic as healthy prostate tissue samples, the study found. This equates to about 40 micrograms of plastic per gram of tissue compared to 16 micrograms.

Researchers avoided contaminating the samples with other plastics by substituting standard tools with those made of aluminum, cotton and other non-plastic material, the release noted.

NIGHTLY BATHROOM HABIT WAS MISSED SIGN OF COMMON MEN’S CANCER: ‘I DIDN’T KNOW’

The scientists say this is the first direct evidence linking microplastics to prostate cancer.

“By uncovering yet another potential health concern posed by plastic, our findings highlight the need for stricter regulatory measures to limit the public’s exposure to these substances, which are everywhere in the environment,” said senior study author Vittorio Albergamo, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in the release.

The study findings were presented during the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco on Feb. 26.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER

“What is most striking is not that microplastics were detected, but that they were found embedded within tumor tissue itself,” Dr. David Sidransky, oncologist and medical advisor at SpotitEarly, a startup that offers an at-home breath-based test to detect early-stage cancer, told Fox News Digital.

“While complete avoidance is unrealistic, people can take practical steps to reduce exposure.”

“We already know microplastics are present in water, air, blood and even placental tissue. Their detection in prostate tumors suggests systemic distribution and long-term bioaccumulation,” added Maryland-based Sidransky, who was not involved in the study.

Study limitations

Albergamo cautioned that a larger sample is needed to confirm the findings. Additionally, Sidransky noted that the presence of microplastics alone does not prove they cause cancer.

“Tumors can act as ‘biologic sinks,’ meaning they may accumulate circulating particles simply because of altered vasculature and permeability,” he said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES

A key unanswered question, according to the doctor, is whether microplastics are biologically active in ways that “promote DNA damage, immune modulation or chronic inflammation within the prostate.”

About one in eight men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The most actionable step men can take is appropriate screening and early detection, according to doctors. (iStock)

For those concerned about microplastics, Sidransky offered some insights.

“I believe the appropriate response is curiosity, not panic, and a commitment to understand more,” he said.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“While complete avoidance is unrealistic, people can take practical steps to reduce exposure, such as minimizing heating food in plastic containers, reducing bottled water consumption when possible, and favoring glass or stainless steel alternatives.”

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ

The most actionable step men can take, however, is getting appropriate screenings to help ensure early detection, according to the doctor. Screening discussions should be individualized based on age, family history and other risk factors.

Khloe Quill is a lifestyle production assistant with Fox News Digital. She and the lifestyle team cover a range of story topics including food and drink, travel, and health.