On November 30, 2020, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) has awarded a supplemental grant to Brown University School of Public Health to design an adverse event monitoring system to identify adverse health impacts after receipt of COVID-19 vaccination by elderly nursing home residents. While there are currently four vaccines in Phase 3 trials in the US, the vaccine trials have rarely included frail, aged subjects with multiple morbidities. For these reasons, and because there is considerable evidence that the immune systems of frail older people are not as responsive as those of the younger people on which vaccines are being tested, careful monitoring of their response to the vaccine will be required. Once a vaccine is approved, it is expected that frail older persons living in congregate settings are in the top priority group for distribution.

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