Influenza vaccination could protect against Covid-19



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A patient receives a flu shot. Photo: dpa / Felix Kästle

The second corona wave has Germany completely under control. The numbers are increasing every day. The seven-day mean of new infections was 16,244 on Tuesday, higher than ever since the coronavirus arrived in Germany. The federal government reacted to the spread of the virus with a blocking light. Once again, social distancing is the order of the day. According to a report from the Pharmazeutische Zeitung (PZ), a vaccination against normal flu can at least protect a little from infections.

The PZ cites a study by Radboud University in the Netherlands and Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, for which researchers analyzed data from more than 10,000 employees at Radboud University Hospital. As a result, 184 employees of the clinic had tested positive for corona virus by June 2020. The infected were checked to see if they had been vaccinated against the flu and the result was clear enough. While only 1.33% of vaccinated employees had Covid-19, it was 2.23% of the unvaccinated. According to the researchers, this corresponds to a 39% risk reduction.

They concluded that people who received the flu vaccine last winter had a lower risk of infection with the new coronavirus than those who had not been vaccinated during the first wave of the corona pandemic. Further investigations proved this: the flu shot was shown to create a “trained” immunity. This therefore has an effect not only in the case of influenza virus infection, but also in the case of other pathogens. This means: the immune cells are “trained” by the flu vaccination and can therefore provide a stronger cytokine response than the “untrained” cells. Doctors speak of “cross immunity” here.

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However, the study published on the “medRxiv” prepress server, which has not yet been reviewed by independent colleagues, is not clear evidence of a connection. Although there are similar studies from Italy, strong evidence for this hypothesis is still pending.

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