So this year there have been more than 15,000 cases of influenza in New South Wales alone, more than 12,000 of which have been diagnosed since the beginning of May.
The Queensland government has announced loose flu shots and NSW is doing the same. Australian Medical Association President Omar Khorshid has suggested to the new federal government that it supply loose flu vaccines to all Australians.
Meanwhile, COVID cases continue as the colder weather begins.
The good news is that we know that the flu vaccine can oppose the flu and a developing framework of foreign studies suggests that the flu vaccine can also oppose COVID.
A recent study of 30,774 fitness staff members in Qatar found that the flu vaccine can prevent COVID, especially serious illnesses.
These promising effects have implications only for COVID, but also for long-term pandemics caused by emerging germs. However, there are a few reasons to exercise caution.
Rupture: Hazzard announces that NSW plans to release flu vaccines for this season with an announcement in the coming days following a resolution in Queensland. #grippe https://t. co/jfN80LqraL
New discoveries about influenza
The Qatari study, published online this month and not yet independently verified, used the knowledge of more than 12,000 fitness staff members who were tested for COVID in the 2020 flu season.
The researchers compared flu vaccination rates between the 576 health care staff members who had COVID and a similar organization of 2000 health care staff members who tested negative for COVID in the last 3 months of 2020.
Those who had been vaccinated against the flu at least two weeks before the COVID test were 30% less likely to have a positive COVID test and almost 90% less likely to spread severe or critical COVID than those who had not. He has recently been vaccinated against the flu.
This location is consistent with retrospective studies conducted in Brazil, Italy, Iran, the Netherlands, and the United States, which have also demonstrated protective effects of influenza vaccination against COVID.
Common to the studies of other people working in the fitness field, there is a risk that the other people participating in the study will be aware of the physical state. They are likely to be more likely to comply with COVID coverage recommendations, such as compliance with lockdown measures, physical isolation, and wearing a mask. They are also more likely to get a flu shot. This possible bias is reduced in the Qatar study by focusing only on fitness painters, but it is ruled out that it contributes to the results.
There are two other considerations about the implications of this study. First, the physical care staff included in the study were young and did not assess whether they had other physical conditions. This means that the effects seen in the study might not be true. for older adults and those with other physical conditions, either of whom has an increased risk of severe COVID.
Second, the study used data collected before COVID vaccines and before COVID variants like Omicron. This means that the impact of the effects on existing global cases is unclear.
In the study, the average duration of COVID testing after flu vaccination was six weeks. Since the study only recorded data over a three-month period, it is unclear whether this protective effect of the COVID flu vaccine could last longer than a few months.
“Off target” vaccines
In the early months of the pandemic, when COVID vaccines were still in development, researchers were very interested in the option that existing vaccines could only provide some protection against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID).
In fact, there is new evidence that some vaccines would possibly have additional effects, rather than an opposite coverage to the infection for which they were originally designed.
This additional coverage has been basically similar to live attenuated vaccines, made from a weakened form of the germ or a similar germ. to reduce child deaths from any cause.
It is believed that this coverage is due to the fact that these vaccines can revive the immunological formula so that it better protects the picture against infectious diseases.
To learn more about the additional coverage of regimen vaccines such as those opposing COVID, several randomized controlled trials are underway.
A multinational clinical trial, called the BRACE trial, has recruited nearly 7,000 healthcare personnel to determine whether the BCG vaccine reduces the occurrence of symptomatic and severe COVID. So far, we have found that the BCG vaccine alters the immune reaction to SARS-CoV-2 in a way that can decrease severe COVID cases.
However, this trial is ongoing and we want to wait for the final effects for whether this immune reaction translates into real coverage against COVID.
Decreased COVID inflammatory reaction?
For flu vaccines, a credible explanation for their opposite effect to COVID is that the flu vaccine reduces the risk of getting the flu and SARS-CoV-2 infection at the same time.
Co-infection with influenza and COVID is linked to more severe illness. Preventing this can lessen the severity of COVID. However, due to exceptionally low influenza rates in Qatar during the 2020 flu season, this is unlikely to compare with recent findings.
Like the BCG vaccine, flu vaccines would potentially minimize potentially destructive inflammatory immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Severe COVID has been linked to overactive inflammatory responses that can damage tissues and lead to severe symptoms. By reducing inflammation, those regimen vaccines can also only save you related tissue damage.
Future protection
These promising effects emerge as we deal with the spread of COVID and the pandemic continues.
More studies are needed to verify what researchers are starting to report. But the possibility that existing vaccines, such as the flu vaccine and BCG, provide COVID ions gives rise to the possibility that they may also help against pandemics in the long run.
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