{"id":49947,"date":"2021-08-05T20:35:07","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T00:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=49947"},"modified":"2021-08-05T20:35:51","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T00:35:51","slug":"study-shows-flu-vaccine-may-reduce-severe-covid-19-side-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/08\/study-shows-flu-vaccine-may-reduce-severe-covid-19-side-effects\/","title":{"rendered":"Study shows Flu vaccine may reduce severe COVID-19 side effects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Individuals who received an influenza vaccine and subsequently developed COVID-19 have the potential for less severe side effects from the disease, according to a new study published in the Plos One medical journal<\/a> on Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What You Need To Know<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new study published Wednesday found individuals who received an influenza vaccine and subsequently developed COVID-19 tended to develop less severe side effects from the disease<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study specifically found patients who received the influenza vaccine had a mitigated risk of sepsis, deep vein thrombosis, and both emergency department and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions after contracting COVID-19 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study, however, found \u201cno association between influenza vaccination and risk of death\u201d in COVID-19 patients <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers do not yet have a concrete answer as to why the influenza vaccine might offer protection against severe cases of COVID-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers examined the records of over 73 million patients from around the world, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Israel and Singapore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those records were pared down to two groups of 37,377 COVID-19 patients: Members of one group had received an influenza vaccine anywhere from six months to two weeks prior to contracting COVID-19, and the other group did not get a flu vaccine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers say two weeks is the minimum amount of time for a person to develop sufficient antibodies after receiving a flu vaccine, while six months is when protection against a virus can start to fade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study specifically found patients who received the influenza vaccine had a mitigated risk of sepsis, deep vein thrombosis, and both emergency department and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions after contracting COVID-19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 patients who had not gotten a flu vaccine were 20% more likely to be admitted to the ICU, around 58% more likely to make an emergency room visit, 58% more likely to have a stroke and up to 45% more likely to develop sepsis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings \u201csuggest a potential protective effect that could benefit populations without readily available access to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination,\u201d the study\u2019s authors wrote in part, adding: \u201cThus, further investigation with future prospective studies is warranted.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study, however, found \u201cno association between influenza vaccination and risk of death\u201d in COVID-19 patients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Plos One study is not the first to proffer a link between the flu vaccine and less severe side effects from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One study, published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine<\/a> in January, examined 2,005 patients at the University of Florida who tested positive for COVID-19. Patients who had not received an influenza vaccination before contracting COVID-19 had both greater odds of hospitalization and greater odds of ICU admission compared to COVID-19 patients who had gotten their influenza vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur analysis suggests that the influenza vaccination is potentially protective from moderate and  severe cases of COVID-19 infection,\u201d the study concluded in part. \u201cThis protective effect holds regardless of comorbidity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While researchers do not yet have a concrete answer as to why the influenza vaccine might offer protection against severe cases of COVID-19, they do have a number of theories. One possible answer is that the influenza vaccine triggers additional killer cells in the human body, which can in turn help to fight off the SARS-CoV-2 virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another theory, originally proposed in the International Immunopharmacology<\/a> Sept. 2020 issue, suggests a certain oil-in-water squalene emulsion present in influenza vaccines also helps to create an immune response against SARS-CoV variants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors of the study published Wednesday say not only is the discovery important in \u201cguarding against a possible \u2018twindemic\u2019 of simultaneous outbreaks of influenza and SARS-CoV-2,\u201d but it can also be used to slow the tide of severe COVID-19 cases in area with little access to COVID-19 vaccines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Influenza vaccination may even benefit individuals hesitant to receive a COVID-19 vaccine due to the newness of the technology,\u201d wrote Susan Taghioff, co-author of the study and a research assistant at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, wrote in a statement <\/a>announcing the results. “Despite this, the influenza vaccine is by no means a replacement for the COVID-19 vaccine and we advocate for everyone to receive their COVID-19 vaccine if able to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Individuals who received an influenza vaccine and subsequently developed COVID-19 have the potential for less severe side effects from the disease, according to a new study published in the Plos One… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":49948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[557],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49947"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49949,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49947\/revisions\/49949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}