ECCMID: Unexpectedly, the flu vaccine can also prevent severe COVID-19!

A new study presented at the European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held online this year concluded that influenza vaccine may provide important protection against COVID-19

An analysis of patient data from around the world strongly suggests that annual flu vaccine injections can reduce the risk of stroke, sepsis and deep vein thrombosis in COVID-19 patients

Recently, several small-scale studies have shown that influenza vaccine may provide protection against COVID-19, which means that it may be a valuable weapon to contain the pandemic

Susan Taghioff of Miami Miller University School of Medicine and her colleagues retrospectively analyzed the data of tens of thousands of patients from all over the world

In the largest study of its kind, the research team screened the unidentified electronic health records of more than 70 million patients in the TriNetX research database and identified two groups of 37,377 patients

The two groups were matched in terms of factors that may affect their risk of severe COVID-19, including health issues such as age, gender, race, smoking and diabetes, obesity and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Members of the first group received the flu vaccine two weeks to six months before being diagnosed with COVID-19

Incidence of 15 adverse outcomes (sepsis; stroke; deep vein thrombosis; pulmonary embolism; acute respiratory failure; acute respiratory distress syndrome; arthralgia or arthralgia; renal failure; anorexia; heart attack; pneumonia; emergency department Department visits; admission; ICU admission; and death)

Analysis shows that those who have not received the flu vaccine are more likely (up to 20% probability) to be admitted to the intensive care unit

They are also more likely to go to the emergency department (up to 58% probability), suffer from sepsis (up to 45% probability), stroke (up to 58% probability), and deep vein thrombosis (up to 40% probability)

It is not yet clear how the flu vaccine prevents COVID-19, but most theories revolve around it to strengthen the innate immune system-the "general" defenses that we are born with are not suitable for any particular disease

The authors of the study stated that their results strongly indicate that the flu vaccine can prevent several serious effects of COVID-19

The senior author of the study, Dr.

“Acquiring real-time data on millions of patients is a powerful research tool

"This finding is particularly important because the pandemic is causing resource strain in many parts of the world

Ms.

"Nevertheless, the flu vaccine is by no means a substitute for the COVID-19 vaccine.
We advocate that everyone receive the COVID-19 vaccine if possible
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"Continuing to promote influenza vaccines may also help the global population avoid a possible'double pandemic'-the simultaneous outbreak of influenza and coronavirus
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"Regardless of the degree of protection of the influenza vaccine against the adverse consequences of COVID-19, as long as the number of influenza cases can be controlled to preserve global medical resources, it is sufficient to support continued efforts to promote influenza vaccination
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