we can do this. if we do it together. we go further, so you can. >> both arms go up and over your head. >> eight months into the pandemic, patients in their 20s, 30s and 40s who had recovered from relatively mild cases of covid-- >> i just got an m.r.i. >> --are showing up in doctors offices and emergency rooms around the world with mysterious and debilitating symptoms. >> there's thousands and thousands of people that are going through this, and that's why it's so impactful. >> you believe it's not in their heads. >> yeah, i have to. because i feel those symptoms, too, and i don't think it's all in my head. ( ticking ) >> no one is keeping track of how many kids nationwide are not in school because of the

pandemic-- so "60 minutes" compiled enrollment data from 78 of the largest school districts in the country. the results were alarming. districts reported that when school started, at least 240,000 students were unaccounted for. >> well, here in hillsborough county, we're missing 7,000 students. >> 7,000 kids didn't come back. >> 7,000. ( ticking ) >> what's going on, lou? >> "60 minutes" has been following elderly participants in a study called 90-plus. ♪ ♪ and, as you'll hear tonight, what they're finding out about the science of longevity is evolving-- and amazing: >> half of all children born today in the united states and europe is going to reach their 103rd or 104th birthday. >> half? >> yes. ( ticking ) >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight, on "60

minutes." ( ticking ) students of color typically do not have access to high quality computer science and stem education. ♪ i joined amazon because i wanted to change education and i am impatient. amazon gives me the resources to change the world at a pace that i want to change it. ♪ we provide students stem scholarships and teachers with support. ♪

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>> cooper: covid-19 was initially thought to be a disease that was serious for the eldery and people with preexisting conditions... a potentially tough, but temporary, respiratory illness for everyone else. but now, eight months into the pandemic, younger patients who have had relatively mild cases of covid are showing up in doctors offices and emergency rooms with mysterious and debilitating symptoms. it's not unusual for viruses to cause after-effects, but as you'll hear tonight, doctors tell us they've never seen anything like this. while researchers around the world are scrambling to figure out what's happening, mount sinai hospital here in new york opened one of the first centers to study and treat people with what they're calling "post acute covid syndrome." the patients we met have a less clinical term-- they call themselves long-haulers. >> sadie nagamootoo: it's like a-- a like a viral tornado... ( sighs ) that goes in you and kind of

just messes you up and then-- like, it kind of leaves. but leaves something behind. >> cooper: it leaves the rubble that a tornado leaves behind-- >> nagamootoo: the rubble, yeah. it leaves the damage behind. >> cooper: sadie nagamootoo was 44 years old and a personal trainer in new york when she got covid in march. she was able to recover at home and when she tested negative in may, she thought her life would return to normal. it hasn't. >> nagamootoo: there are days where i do nothing and just can't get out of bed. the migraines-- they are, like, ten times worse than a flu. headache, pains, like muscular issues. and there are sometimes where my hands feel like they have pins and needles and i have to stop using them because i can't feel anything. >> cooper: some people who are going through this call themselves long-haulers. do you think it's going to be a long haul? >> nagamootoo: it has been a long haul. >> cooper: eight months after getting infected, she says she can't work out, or work in the gym. just walking up stairs sends her heart rate soaring.

>> nagamootoo: the grocery store's, like, the dread for me. >> cooper: what's ha grocery store? >> nagamootoo: i cannot lift bags and walk. >> cooper: you're a full-time trainer, and you can't lift grocery bags. >> nagamootoo: correct. >> cooper: sadie has seen half a dozen doctors in the past six months. her bedside table looks like a medicine cabinet. >> both arms go up and over your head. >> cooper: she's been diagnosed with post-viral fatigue, inflammation in the lungs, and tachycardia-- a rapid heart rate-- but no one can tell her exactly why this is happening. it's got to take such a toll mentally to still be dealing with this. >> nagamootoo: it's depressing, is really what it is. nobody can really understand or relate to you, except somebody else who's had the same problem. >> cooper: what's been worse for you, the initial infection or the aftermath of covid? >> nitza rochez: the aftermath, without a doubt. >> cooper: nitza rochez also got covid in march. and by may, the infection was gone, but 191 days later, she's still struggling. >> rochez: i was sick with

covid. but this post-covid experience has been beyond the worst experience of my life. ( cheering ) >> cooper: nitza loved to run. three years ago, she completed the new york city marathon, and the following year, berlin. at 43, she was training for another race when she got infected. >> there's a slight unsteadiness. >> cooper: now, she tells us, she has trouble walking more than a few blocks down the street. nitza says she's had so many strange and unrelenting symptoms, she started documenting them on her phone. she got tremors in her hands... >> rochez: why is this happening? >> cooper: ...and had problems with her balance. >> rochez: i had headache, dizziness, blurry vision-- double vision, heavy limbs. >> cooper: it's a lot. >> rochez: it's a lot. >> cooper: for months, she experienced memory problems, trouble finding words, and confusion, something many

long-haulers grapple with. they call it "covid brain fog," and nitza says it made everyday tasks nearly impossible. >> rochez: it's an odd sensation. it's as if-- as though i'veken . kind of like a disconnect, a cloudiness to my head. >> cooper: but nitza says the most terrifying symptom was when her legs started to give out. >> rochez: i moved in with my sister, and she said, "why are you walking like that?" and i said, "i don't know, maybe i'm just tired." and i think three to four days after she mentioned that, i woke up and my legs were-- felt so heavy, as if-- as though a weight was pulling me down, that i just-- my legs didn't support me. and i just kind of, like, fell. i just got an m.r.i. >> cooper: she went to the emergency room, and requested an m.r.i. and a full blood workup. everything came back normal. >> rochez: the doctors were like, "you're fine. you're having anxiety attacks. you're just nervous. breathe."

>> cooper: they thought it was in your head. >> rochez: they thought it was in my head. and it's one of those moments that i'll never forget, because how can i possibly be fine? and when i left the emergency room that day, i was like, "i'm just going home to die." ( crying ) sorry. ( crying ) sorry, sorry. you don't mind. >> cooper: even recounting that is emotional. to be told what you're feeling is not real. >> rochez: precisely. >> cooper: she eventually found her way to mount sinai hospital's center for post-covid care in new york. there are 40 doctors working with the center, most of them specialists focused on treating and studying long-haulers. >> dr. dayna mccarthy: the average age of patients who are feeling this post-acute covid syndrome are 20s to 40s. they were relatively healthy before. >> cooper: dr. dayna mccarthy is a rehab specialist at the center which has treated 1,000 patients since it opened its doors in may. there is a waitlist to get in. the vast majority of the

patients that you see here at-- at this center-- were never hospitalized. >> dr. mccarthy: correct. >> cooper: so they weren't on ventilators. this is not ramifications from being in the hospital? >> dr. mccarthy: correct. yup. >> cooper: dr. mccarthy is treating her patients' symptoms as best she can, but isn't much closer to understanding what's causing them. do we know now what's going on? >> dr. mccarthy: no. >> cooper: no? >> dr. mccarthy: we still don't know. yeah, yeah. >> dr. zijian chen: i think it's a little bit of a mystery. and, well, let's take "little bit" out of it. i think this is a mystery. >> cooper: dr. zijian chen heads up the center which mount sinai modeled on the hospital's approach to another public health crisis-- the september 11th attacks. >> dr. chen: this virus has many different effects on the human body, just like what 9/11 did to, you know, their-- those survivors. so, as a kind of catastrophic event at one time that causes a large group of special patients, you know, in a way, this is very similar to 9/11, but on a much grander scale. >> cooper: the pool of patients is much larger?

>> dr. chen: absolutely. >> cooper: mount sinai is studying commonalities among that pool of patients using data they've compiled, and is scanning long-haulers' brains, lungs and hearts using high-resolution imaging to see exactly what damage the virus might have done. the lack of answers and the skepticism many of these patients face have contributed to high levels of depression and anxiety, though dr. mccarthy says that's not what's making them sick. you believe it's not in their heads. you believe them. >> dr. mccarthy: yeah. i have to. because i feel those symptoms, too, and i don't think it's all in my head. >> cooper: dr. mccarthy had what she considered a mild case of covid in march, but eight months later, she says, like so many long-haulers, she still finds it hard to get through the day. >> dr. mccarthy: i basically do my work and i go home and i go to sleep. that's what i'm capable of doing right now. >> cooper: and at the end of the day, do you feel way more tired than you normally would? >> dr. mccarthy: so, at the end of this day, because of what's happening right now, and because of the meetings that i have

after this, i will have probably the most excruciating headache. and i will just take some tylenol and curl up in a ball and go to sleep, and hope i feel better tomorrow. >> cooper: dr. mccarthy knows better than anyone, there's no clear roadmap for recovery. nitza rochez is seeing a physiatrist, a neurologist and a cardiologist. she's been prescribed physical therapy, breathing exercises and dietary changes, as well as blood pressure medication and steroids. >> dr. mccarthy: so, at this point, it's not that we're doing anything, in terms of rocket science. >> cooper: it's not like people come here and there's some drug that nobody knows about that you give them, and-- and-- >> dr. mccarthy: absolutely not. but that's what makes it even more difficult, right? it would be so easy if that was the case. >> cooper: there are patients who come to the center with diagnosable damage from covid, especially in their lungs. but as many as 85% of patients here show no clear cause for their symptoms. one theory is that the immune stem, which was fighting the virus during the infection, is still in overdrive. >> dr. mccarthy: so, there's a

foreign invader, right? your immune system's the army. it's never been met with anything like this before. right? so it builds up a massive army. and then it goes and fights this. >> cooper: and even after the battle's done, the army is still around. >> dr. mccarthy: revved up, right. so, it's very possible that the immune system didn't quite calm down. >> cooper: doctors are looking into whether a ramped-up immune response, both during and after the infection, could be wreaking havoc inside patients' bodies. >> dr. chen: because the virus kind of goes everywhere after it goes to the lungs, the immune response actually goes everywhere as well. so, part of the damage is from the virus itself, but your immune system is also doing damage to your organs. >> cooper: what does that mean? the immune system is doing damage to your organs? >> dr. chen: so, your immune system, when it's active, what it does is, it starts fighting the virus by activating these cells that kill the virus. but what happens is, sometimes these cells, they damage the orgahathvirus is next to, so it's almost like collateral damage. >> cooper: sometimes the only

way to spot that damage is on the autopsy table after a patient has died. what can you learn about the living by studying the dead? >> dr. mary fowkes: because we don't know anything about this disease, an autopsy is the most useful, because it will help us determine how this virus is actually making people sick. >> cooper: as head of autopsy and neuropathology at mount sinai, dr. mary fowkes examined more than a hundred people who died from covid. early on, she was stunned by how widespread the destruction was. so, people think of covid as a respiratory illness, but you're seeing damage all over the body. >> dr. fowkes: so, there's damage in the lung, heart, brain, kidney, liver. >> cooper: dr. fowkes told us some of the damage could be caused, in part, by the amped-up immune response, but she also spotted something else. >> dr. fowkes: we saw small and very microscopic blood clots in the lungs, the heart, the liver,

and significant blood clots in the brain. >> cooper: is that something you expected to find? >> dr. fowkes: no! ( laughs ) not at all. nobody's seen it like this. >> cooper: blood clots can lead to strokes, which dr. fowkes frequently found in the brains of covid victims. >> dr. fowkes: so, this is the right side of the cerebellum. the cerebellum is responsible for our balance. >> cooper: so, that indentation, that brown wedge? >> dr. fowkes: yup. >> cooper: that's a stroke? >> dr. fowkes: that's a stroke. >> cooper: dr. fowkes' patients may have been the sickest of the sick, but her work might offer clues for mount sinai researchers who are collaborating with colleagues around the world to figure out what's causing symptoms in living long-haulers. >> dr. mccarthy: i'll see you in six weeks, okay? >> cooper: dr. dayna mccarthy hopes her patients won't have to wait for answers. >> dr. mccarthy: we have the expectation of patients getting better. why? because there's nothing to say that they won't, yet. >> cooper: have any of your patients made a full recovery? >> dr. mccarthy: not full. i have some that are around 90%, 95%. >> cooper: but as new infections

keep rising, so do the numbers of long-haulers. >> dr. mccarthy: there's thousands and thousands of people that are going through this. the numbers are enormous. and that's why it's so impactful. >> cooper: impactful not only on people's lives, on the economy, on-- >> dr. mccarthy: correct. on the healthcare system. how about-- >> cooper: on families. >> dr. mccarthy: the burden of care for the healthcare system that now has young patients, right, who, if we don't do something now to try to get them better, can have a chronic-type illness that then requires consistent and persistent money and care? >> cooper: nitza rochez says she has made some progress in recent weeks, but still has a long way to go. >> cooper: do you think you'll run again? >> rochez: yes. i was expecting to be running by now, so it's kind of a sensitive subject for me in general, but i'm hopeful. yes, i will be running again. >> cooper: it's a mental battle, it's a physical battle. and you're still trying to get across the finish line. >> rochez: yeah, that finish line seems very far away.

>> cooper: this past week, dr. mary fowkes, the head of autopsy and neuropathology at mount sinai, died suddenly of a heart attack. her work helped inform mount sinai's covid treatment protocals since the beginning of the pandemic. ( ticking ) and a steady stream of protected income can help you secure the life you've planned. for more than 150 years, generations have trusted the strength and stability of pacific life with their tomorrows. because life isn't about what tomorrow brings. it's what you do with it. ask a financial professional about pacific life

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since the surge of covid cases this fall, many cities including new york, detroit and philadelphia have suspended or postponed their plans to hold in-person classes. the delays and ever-changing schedules have been frustrating to parents and students, but also worrisome to educators, who told us, at the start of the school year, hundreds of thousands of students did not enroll. they're not logging in or coming in. we wondered, where did they go? to find out, we went to tampa, florida, where one of the state's largest school districts, hillsborough county, saw an unprecedented drop in enrollment. what do you hear from teachers? are they saying to you, "we're missing kids. he should have been in my class. where is he? he's not showing up"? do you hear that? >> laura tucker: well, here in hillsborough county, we're missing 7,000 students. >> alfonsi: 7,000 kids didn't come back? >> tucker: 7,000. >> alfonsi: how does that 7,000 number compare to previous years? >> tucker: we've never had that happen. >> alfonsi: laura tucker is one

of 235 social workers at the hillsborough county school district. at the beginning of this school year, their job wasn't just checking in on kids-- it was finding them. to have that many kids with a question mark next to their name-- where do you begin? >> tucker: well, every student attended some school last year. all 7,000 of them. so, we start there. you know, what about their emergency contacts? you know, maybe grandma or grandpa is on the emergency card and grandma and grandpa can tell you where they are. you know, we find kids because another one went to a birthday party and they saw them, and so, yeah, they're still in tampa. okay, you know, we're energized to keep looking for that student. >> alfonsi: this is detective work. >> tucker: right. and i think that being willing to talk to friends and neighbors is also helpful. >> alfonsi: the clues take her to public housing... >> tucker: hello, pumpkin. >> alfonsi: ...and suburban cul du sacs. ( knocking ) >> hello?

hello? sheriff's office. >> alfonsi: laura tucker has also gone with sheriff's deputies to check on reports of families staying in this encampment in the woods. this past week, she found a seventh-grade boy living here with his mother. >> tucker: i'll try anything to find students who need to be in school. but this is unchartered ground. we've never had to look this hard for kids, in my career. >> alfonsi: last month, she agreed to allow us to spend a day with her as she searched for students around tampa. our day began in a parking garage. so this is your-- your makeshift office? >> tucker: it is. i've worked out of my s.u.v. for a while now. yeah, all summer long. >> alfonsi: that's your list for the day. >> tucker: yes. we're going to start-- >> alfonsi: she read us the list of the students she was going to try to find that day. >> tucker: well we have joshua, who is six years old. we have mackenzie, who is seven. >> alfonsi: 17 children, who for

some reason have not come back to school this year. >> tucker: and we have ryan, who is seven. stewart is six. >> alfonsi: they're young. little. >> tucker: yes. yeah, a lot of little ones. >> alfonsi: florida state law requires parents to enroll their child in school at age six or notify the school district about an alternate home schooling plan. right now, students who are enrolled in hillsborough county can attend brick-and-mortar school or join class virtually. the students laura tucker was looking for hadn't done either. they were marked as missing. i guess somebody could say, "well, it's probably paperwork." >> tucker: i don't know if it's paperwork. i think a portion of them moved away. i think a portion of them are doing their own thing. they're homeschooling and they just haven't notified our homeschool office that that's what they've decided to do. and then, some of them just aren't doing school. and you can get away with it

right now. and that's really scary. >> alfonsi: no one is keeping track of how many kids nationwide are not in school because of the pandemic. so, "60 minutes" compiled enrollment data from 78 of the largest school districts in the country. the results were alarming. districts reported that when school started, at least 240,000 students were unaccounted for. and, the two largest teachers unions in the country, the national education association and the american federation of teachers, told us their members have seen significant drops in student attendance, especially in disadvantaged communities without access to computers and the internet for online learning. >> where are we headed. we might be taking a left actually. >> alfonsi: one student on laura tucker's list this summer was a high school senior named kiara. school administrator roslyn brown went with tucker to go see her.

( knocking ) >> hi, kiara. >> alfonsi: kiara was a good student who wasn't logging in, and suddenly started failing classes when school went virtual. >> but with this new technology, i think its going to be a lot easier. >> alfonsi: they found her, 30 minutes outside of tampa. >> its so good to see you. >> kiara: it is really good. i miss you guys. i miss going to school. >> alfonsi: kiara was here caring for her grandmother during the pandemic. >> tucker: we have your number. do we have mom's number? or does mom have a working number? >> kiara: she doesn't have a phone. >> tucker: today, we made sure that she knows that we know that she's coming back to school. her plan is to do well. her plan is not to disappear. >> all right, kiara, i'll be in touch. all right, bye. >> alfonsi: a few months ago, kiara moved again, to this motel. her mother agreed to let her speak to us. kiara's story helped us understand how so many students have gone missing during the covid crisis. >> alfonsi: how many times do you think you've moved? >> kiara: i moved a lot around tampa. so i'd say maybe about eight,

nine times. >> alfonsi: kiara told us her family has bounced between motels and relatives' couches since she was in elementary school. her step-father lost his job at the beginning of the pandemic. who lives here? >> kiara: me, my sister, my mom, and my step-dad. >> alfonsi: all in one... ? >> kiara: all in one room. >> alfonsi: what was it like in the spring when you couldn't go to school? >> kiara: not having that teacher to really talk to was kind of difficult, and just me not having a laptop at the time. it was difficult doing it on my phone. just such a small screen. >> alfonsi: you were doing your e-learning, your virtual learning, on a phone? >> kiara: on my phone, yes. >> alfonsi: how was that? >> kiara: it was very difficult because my phone is really skinny. at the time, i didn't have glasses, so i'd have to, like, slide to the left and slide to the right and slide up. so it was just really iffy. >> alfonsi: and she said working in the crowded motel room was almost impossible. so, you sometimes escape so that you can study, right? >> kiara: definitely. i definitely come outside. i'll sit here and study. but sometimes, you know, the

mosquitoes are coming, you know. it's hard. >> alfonsi: or she would walk a mile to this park. you were coming out to places like this to get some peace and quiet, but then you don't have wifi. you don't have an outlet? >> kiara: definitely. it was very difficult. but i'd try to make it work as best as i could. >> alfonsi: is it easier for a kid to slip through the cracks right now because of the pandemic? >> tucker: yes. prior to the pandemic, if you were driving down the road and you saw a school-aged child hanging out, riding their skateboard, a social worker such as myself might stop and-- and say, "why aren't you in school today?" today, we'll see children on the sidewalk and they may be in school. they may be doing online learning. they may be homeschooled. there certainly are some truancy issues out there, but it's not like it was before. >> alfonsi: other children who should be in school aren't so easy to see. >> good morning, joshua. you doing all right this morning?

>> alfonsi: laura tucker found six-year-old joshua living with his grandmother-- his legal guardian. >> victoria: yeah, he's really tall. >> alfonsi: joshua's aunt agreed to come out to talk to us. so what was going on with joshua? he was supposed to be in kindergarten this year? >> victoria: yeah, my mother was having a hard time to putting them through e-learning, and due to the covid, like, we didn't want to send him back out because he's still so young. >> tucker: do you have any questions for me? >> alfonsi: laura tucker offered to get joshua enrolled in virtual learning, and promised a teacher would call to work out a plan. the concern there is, it's not that he's losing a couple weeks. he could have lost a year. >> tucker: he could've absolutely lost a year, and my fear would be he would enter in first grade, he would then struggle. and then by third grade when he's taking those high-stakes tests, he may not be able to progress in order to pass. so if we can get him back in school, get him back on track we can avoid all of that.

we're not the big bad social workers. we're the good helpy social workers. >> alfonsi: school districts we spoke to said they saw their largest decrease in enrollment in pre-k and kindergarten. but it's too early to know how the disruption caused by covid will impact student learning. florida's biggest industry, tourism and hospitality, was pummeled by the covid crisis, and low-wage workers were hit the hardest. this fall, tucker has found many families at motels like this, because shelters are full. >> tucker: i am trying to see if a young lady is still staying at this hotel? >> alfonsi: laura tucker was looking for an 11th-grader named shamika. this was her last known address. >> manager: no, that person checked out. >> tucker: do you know how long ago she checked out? >> alfonsi: tucker just missed her. she expects this job to get even tougher as more children become displaced by the pandemic. >> tucker: hoping to find a

family that was living here at one time. >> alfonsi: a federal order that stops the eviction of tenants who would become homeless expires at the end of the year. >> tucker: right now, we've got a country that is about to witness evictions like they've never witnessed before. and i compare it a lot to what we experience in hurricanes here in florida. no one expects a hurricane to blow their house over, but when it does, the school district and other agencies swoop in to try and solve problems. >> alfonsi: around the country, school districts have mobilized. in loudoun county, virginia we saw them looking for 400 students, canvassing laundromats and thrift shops. >> tucker: every principal is looking. every assistant principal is looking. all the social workers are looking. the teachers are looking. >> alfonsi: kiara told us she's glad they looked for her. three months after we first met her, she was back in school and

on track to be the first woman in her family to graduate from high school. she wants to go on to junior college. in the best situation, covid is hard. going, you know, to school virtually is hard. and you had a tough situation. what kept you going? >> kiara: honestly, thinking about my future and knowing that i am right there. there would be no point in giving up the 3.5 years i've done for something so small or, like, the few months that have been super-hard with covid. >> alfonsi: how many classmates do you think that are really still struggling? >> kiara: i'd say there's about, maybe, like, four or five kids tht, in my class, that i've never heard from or are not in class or even brick-and-mortar, you know? my teacher would be like," i haven't heard from them. are they still in school?" or "what are they doing," you know? so it's just like "wow." i feel bad, you know? >> tucker: he hasn't started school yet and i'm just wondering what's happening. >> alfonsi: we ended our day with hillsborough county social worker laura tucker looking for

a fourth-grader named antoine. >> neighbor: back apartment in this pink building, the last door. >> tucker: hey, guys, give me a minute, i think i found him. >> alfonsi: it turned out no one was home, so she left a card on the door. since our visit, last month, tucker and her colleagues have found all but about 700 of the missing 7,000 kids. they are still searching. >> alfonsi: you feel like you've got a good lead here, and this might be the place. >> tucker: absolutely. i think we've got enough evidence that this is where the young man lives. there's a little boy living in that apartment not going to school, according to the neighbors. so, whether he's my antoine or some antoine, we're going to get a student in school. so it's a good day. ( ticking ) >> the impact this could have on students. >> a loss of education that could ripple throughout their lifetime. >> at 60minutesovertime.com. sponsored by prevnar 13.

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( ticking ) >> lesley stahl: we're a nation living longer and longer. over the next 30 years, the number of americans age 90 and above is expected to triple, and an n.i.h.-funded research study called "90-plus" at the university of california-irvine is trying to learn all it can right now from a group of men and women who've already managed to get there. six years ago, we first reported on their first set of findings. factors associated with longer life? exercise, moderate drinking of alcohol and caffeine, social engagement, and, our favorite-- putting on a few pounds as we

age. the 90-plus study's focus is now on memory and dementia. what they've learned-- and what they haven't-- drew us back, as did the 90-plusers. take a quick look at when we first met them in 2014. >> ted rosenbaum: my birthday is february 7, 1918. >> lou tirado: i was born on august 25, 1920, and i'm 93- us >> ruthy stahl: june 15, 1918, and it was, i'm sure, a lovely day. ( laughs ) >> lesley stahl: the men and women we met six years ago had all agreed to be checked out by the 90-plus study team, top to bottom, every six months. >> tester: big smile. >> lesley stahl: their facial muscles... >> tester: excellent. >> lesley stahl: ...how they walk, how fast they can stand up and sit down... >> tester: fantastic. >> lesley stahl: ...and critically, how they think. >> tester: now spell "world"

backwards. >> jane whistler: d-l-r-o-w. >> lesley stahl: they were an impressive and active group: a b-17 gunner in world war ii. a fellow world war ii vet who drove a convertible. a 95-year-old speed walker. ballroom dancers. >> henry tornell: i asked them, "aren't you going to ask us any questions about our sex life?" and they said no. >> ( laughs ) >> lesley stahl: and sadly, some who had begun to struggle with dementia. >> tester: what is today's date? >> rosenbaum: today's date? >> tester: uh-huh. >> rosenbaum: ( sighs ) today's date? >> lesley stahl: what's the oldest person you have seen? >> claudia kawas: i have seen several 116-year-olds. >> lesley stahl: neurologist claudia kawas, the 90-plus study's lead investigator, says studying the oldest old is increasingly important. >> kawas: half of all children

born today in the united states and europe is going to reach their 103rd or 104th birthday. >> lesley stahl: half? >> kawas: yes. >> lesley stahl: half the children t-- born today, are goin to live to 100? >> kawas: to 103 or 104. >> helen weil: you know, i don't feel a day older than i was yesterday. ( laughs ) >> lesley stahl: they invited us back six years later, and we found some study participants, like helen weil, the ballroom dancer, thriving. >> weil: then i do like so, ten times-- >> lesley stahl: now 99, helen showed us how she exercises in her chair. >> weil: stuff like that. >> tirado: how ya doing, jeff? >> what's going on, lou? >> lesley stahl: lou tirado, the world war ii gunner, turned 100 in august. lou is using zoom. when he was a kid, most homes didn't have a radio. do you have an iphone? >> tirado: i have an iphone. >> lesley stahl: are you on facebook? >> tirado: yes. >> lesley stahl: do you use siri? >> weil: yeah, i tell her every evening, "wake me up at t-- 6:30

tomorrow morning." >> lesley stahl: and she does? >> weil: yeah. yes. ( laughs ) >> colette: who is our current president? >> tirado: president is trump. >> colette: who was the president before trump? >> tirado: obama. >> lesley stahl: because of covid-19, the 90-plus study is doing cognitive tests by phone. >> colette: subtract 7 from 100. >> lesley stahl: lou and helen aced them. >> colette: and keep subtracting seven. >> weil: 93, 86, 79... >> kawas: her memory is better than mine. ( laughs ) >> lesley stahl: but one of our favorite 90-pluser's from six years ago, ruthy stahl, is not so lucky. back then, at 95, she was zipping around in her lime green bug. >> ruthy stahl: i am flying all over the place. >> lesley stahl: but today, at 102, she didn't remember our having met. >> ruthy stahl: and what is your

first name? >> lesley stahl: lesley. >> ruthy stahl: that's a nice name. >> lesley stahl: thank you. ( laughter ) ruthy is as charming and upbeat as ever, but her memory is failing. >> colette: the current president, or the president before him, i'll take either. >> ruthy stahl: no, i can't. >> lesley stahl: do you remember your parents? >> ruthy stahl: no. >> lesley stahl: no? oh, my. >> ruthy stahl: that's funny i don't remember them. >> lesley stahl: is it frustrating when you can't remember? >> ruthy stahl: no. >> lesley stahl: no? >> ruthy stahl: it just passes on to something else. ( laughter ) >> lesley stahl: dr. kawas says most people-- probably even most doctors-- would assume ruthy's memory problems stem from alzheimer's disease, but scientists are finding out more and more about the complexities of what causes dementia. you hear people say, "she got alzheimer's, he has alzheimer's," when they really

should say dementia. >> kawas: that's exactly right. dementia is a loss of thinking abilities that affects your memory, your language. it's a syndrome. it's a syndrome kind of like headache is a syndrome. you can have a headache because you've got a brain tumor, or you can have one because you drank too much, and it's the same with dementia. >> lesley stahl: we were sad to learn that some of the 90-plus participants we met in 2014 have passed away. but by donating their brains, as ted rosenbaum did, they are very much still part of the study, contributing some of its most fascinating, and confounding, results. after a participant dies, the 90-plus team gathers to review mounds of data. now, because of covid, they gather on zoom. >> zara: videos from visit two. >> tester: so tell me what you're going to do when you go home today. >> lesley stahl: ted's test results showed years of memory

problems, as we had seen six years ago. >> rosenbaum: give me a hint? >> lesley stahl: the 90-plus team concluded that ted probably had alzheimer's disease, but then awaited results from their collaborators, a team of pathologists at stanford university, who independently examined ted's brain. >> kawas: they don't know anything except the brain they've got in front of them. >> lesley stahl: and then you come together. >> kawas: and then we come togther, and it's like a reveal party. >> lesley stahl: the definition of alzheimer's disease is having the proteins amyloid and tau-- often called plaques and tangles-- in the brain. >> syed: okay the home stretch. >> lesley stahl: but when the stanford team made their report, ted's brain didn't have either. >> syed: as you may see without even zooming in, the section is clear, it's clean. we're negative for beta amyloid here. >> claudia: it actually looks al does, yes. >> lesley stahl: you sit around, you look at that-- what do you conclude? fotual wasthe only pathology we

tdp-43. >> lesley stahl: tdp-43. a breakthrough. it's a newly-identified cause of dementia-- a protein originally found in a.l.s. patients, that kawas now believes accounts for up to one in five cases of dementia in people over 90. can you find out if you have tdp-43 while you're alive? >> kawas: not yet. >> lesley stahl: and you can't find out if you have two other dementia-causing conditions either: tiny strokes called microinfarcts that damage brain tissue; and hippocampal sclerosis-- a shrinking and scarring of part of the brain. so it's likely that many people in their 90s who are diagnosed with alzheimer's-- >> ruthy stahl: what year? oh... >> lesley stahl: --may actually have something else. >> kawas: there's a whole lot of stuff that goes on in the brain, that we have no way of diagnosing during life.

so, we get a lot of those surprises, but we also get surprises where people have an awful lot of pathology in their brain, a lot of alzheimer's disease, a lot of tdp disease. and they still turn out to be normal. >> tornell: let me hold the chair for you. >> lesley stahl: that's what happened with henry tornell, helen weil's ballroom dancing partner who joked about studying sex over 90. henry died at 100 of cancer, mentally sharp as ever. >> claudia: we should all be so lucky. >> lesley stahl: but his brain told a different story. >> syed: beta amyloid, i don't even have to zoom in. florid. very positive. positive as well. >> lesley stahl: the stanford team found the highest level of plaques and tangles, and tdp-43. >> syed: tdp-43. >> lesley stahl: especially stunning since more than one pathology typically means more severe dementia. so, he was a huge surprise. >> kawas: he was one of our

surprising 90-year-olds who managed to have good cognition in the face of things in their brain that should cause dementia. >> lesley stahl: it used to be that when a person like henry with clear thinking was found to have plaques and tangles, scientists assumed dementia was just a matter of time. but now, they're thinking about it in a new way-- that maybe certain people have protection against dementia, a phenomenon they're calling "resilience." to prove it, though, they need to follow people who are still alive. enter convertible-driving sid shero from our story in 2014. >> technician: let's see. >> lesley stahl: sid had a pet scan back then for the study, which revealed significant amounts of amyloid in his brain. the question was, would dementia be around the corner, or might sid somehow be "resilient?" ♪ happy birthday to you >> sid shero: thank you. >> lesley stahl: sid turned

99 this summer. how old do you feel? >> sid shero: i always say 69. >> lesley stahl: sid has circulation problems that affect his breathing. but his memory? well, he told us about buying his first car 80 years ago, for $18, in a pool hall. >> shero: a '31 chevy convertible with a rumble seat. >> lesley stahl: a rumble seat! >> shero: and i didn't know how to drive. >> lesley stahl: you won it in a pool hall. did you win it on a bet? >> shero: i didn't win it. i bought it-- >> lesley stahl: you bought it? >> shero: i gave him $18. >> lesley stahl: who sold a car for $18? >> shero: he needed the money to shoot pool. >> kawas: so i know he's got at least two pathologies in his head. i know he's got, you know, probably high amounts of alzheimer's, and i know he's got some vascular disease. and we tested him just a couple of weeks ago, and-- >> shero: good morning. >> kawas: --he did great. >> farah: please tell me how many nickels in a dollar?

>> shero: 20. >> farah: how many quarters in $6.75. >> shero: 27. >> farah: wow, you are quick! >> lesley stahl: so, is that resilience? >> kawas: i think that is definitely resilience. sid might be what resilience is all about. >> lesley stahl: could it be a gene? >> kawas: it absolutely could be. or maybe even more likely, multiple genes or combinations of genes. >> lesley stahl: here's my observation. >> kawas: okay. >> lesley stahl: you knew more six years ago-- ( laughter ) than you do now. >> kawas: ( laughs ) >> lesley stahl: there are just so many questions that we don't know the answers to. more questions. >> kawas: that is really a brilliant observation. >> lesley stahl: and what science is all about. for every new answer, two new questions. for every new discovery, like tdp-43 dementia, and especially resilience-- new mysteries to solve. so, like its participants, the

90-plus study is keeping at it, trying to help the rest of us make it to age 102 with ruthy's spirit, but memory intact. >> ruthy stahl: it's a shame. >> lesley stahl: it's a shame. >> ruthy stahl: because there's a lot i could remember. ( laughs ) >> lesley stahl: and i'll bet you had a wonderful life. >> ruthy stahl: oh, i have. it's still going on. ( laughs ) thank goodness. ( laughter ) ( ticking ) >> cbs sports hq by progressive insurance felt james brown with the scores. watson dominates over the pate dwrots. pittsburgh crushed the jays. the lions shut out for the first time since 09. and secured the w. alex smith gets a win since his leg injury two years ago.

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>> stahl: when families gather on thursday, there will likely be fewer places at the table, a smaller turkey in the oven, a dessert or two, instead of the pies and cookies that result from a big family baking binge. this is the year of our covid thanksgiving. quarantines and isolation orders mean many extended families won't be getting together this week. less shouting at the football game on tv or politics around the table. and we'll miss that. and we'll miss- and remember-- the more than 250,000 americans

who have died in this plague. there remains much to be thankful for this thursday: our families, and of course the medical workers, scientists, first responders and others who are making sure there will be no more thanksgivings like this one. ( ticking ) i'm lesley stahl. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." if you have risk factors like heart disease, diabetes and raised triglycerides,...

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