Alliance Calls on ICER to Get COVID-19 Vaccine Value Assessment Right for Older Adults
Published May 4, 2026
Today, the Alliance for Aging Research submitted public comments on the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review’s (ICER) Draft Evidence Report on Vaccines for COVID-19. COVID-19 remains a serious and ongoing threat to older Americans and is responsible for an estimated 360,000 to 520,000 hospitalizations and up to 60,000 deaths annually. In the comments, the Alliance raises concerns that the methodological choices embedded in ICER’s report paint an incomplete picture of the benefits these vaccines actually have for the people most at risk.
ICER’s own analysis confirms that COVID-19 vaccination delivers its greatest benefit to adults 65 and older, particularly those 85 and older. But the report’s reliance on metrics designed for curative treatments, its use of outdated data on long COVID, and its failure to conduct a health equity analysis leave significant gaps that could affect how policymakers, insurers, and clinicians interpret the value of vaccination.
The Alliance’s comments call on ICER to center older adults in its final recommendations, use frameworks that reflect the full value of preventing hospitalization and serious illness, and communicate its findings in a way that strengthens rather than undermines public confidence in vaccines at a time when that confidence is already under pressure.