Severe COVID in older adults may be due to greater viral load, weaker immune response
University of Minnesota http://twin-cities.umn.edu/ 612-625-5000 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