Flu Vaccination Linked With Less Severe COVID-19

(Reuters) – Flu vaccination may lower the risk for severe illness from the coronavirus, including life-threatening sepsis infections and strokes, according to a report in PLoS One.

The researchers studied nearly 75,000 COVID-19 patients, half of whom had received the most recently available flu shot.

SARS-CoV-2-positive patients who had received the flu vaccine had lower risk for sepsis, stroke, and ICU admission, the researchers found. Flu vaccine recipients also had fewer cases of deep venous thrombosis and fewer emergency department visits 90–120 days after their SARS-CoV-2-positive diagnosis.

Studies like this one, however, cannot prove that flu vaccines caused the better outcomes, or how they might have done so.

Stronger and larger studies would help “to validate these findings and determine if an increased emphasis on influenza vaccination will improve adverse outcomes in SARS-CoV-2-positive patients,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE: https://bit.ly/37nhLm7 PLoS One, online August 3, 2021.

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