If you are planning your annual flu scheme this year, you may be wondering if the vaccine can kill two birds with one stone – by preventing the flu, while at the same time providing a level of protection against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Let’s just say the answer is yes and no.
“The flu vaccine does not prevent COVID-19,” said David Cutler, MD, a family physician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, POPSUGAR. However, there is reason to believe that people who are vaccinated can make this flu season – which is likely to be linked to emerging cases of COVID-19 – a lot less severe, thus easing the strain on the health care system.
How the flu could help during the COVID-19 pandemic
As Natasha Bhuyan, MD, a board-certified family physician and regional director at One Medical, explained in an earlier interview, there is some preliminary evidence that getting the flu shot can help reduce the severity of COVID-19. In a study of nearly 100,000 patients in Brazil, “people who received a recent flu shot were on average eight percent less likely to be needed [intensive care] treatment for COVID-19, “said Dr. Bhuyan.
Early research is not conclusive, and the reasons why the flu shot may (or may not) protect people against COVID-19 are not immediately clear. “We can see ‘bystander immunity’, where our bodies do not specifically improve our response to other viruses after receiving the flu vaccine. This is because our innate immune cells will defend the body against multiple pathogens, including those that ‘. t are not focused on the flu vaccine itself, ”she explained. “And there could also be cross-reactivity in the flu vaccine for the COVID-19 virus.”
But even if it does not provide protection from the novel coronavirus, “there are at least three ways in which the flu vaccine can help in the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Drs. Cutler.
- Vaccination can prevent the flu from getting confused with COVID-19. “You will be less likely to get flu symptoms such as fever, cough and body aches,” he said. “These symptoms may be suspicious of COVID-19 and keep you out of work or isolated at home, even if testing is negative because of the risk of a ‘false negative’ test.”
- You are less likely to contract two viral infections at once. “You reduce the risk of getting simultaneous flu and COVID-19 infections, which can be significantly worse than just being alone,” Drs. Cutler POPSUGAR.
- You do not have to worry so much about spreading COVID-19 to others. “If you had asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic COVID-19 – which is what most people get – you would be less likely to spread it if they cough from the flu.”
So, if you were not yet convinced that getting a flu shot this year is in everyone’s best interest, you hope you are now. Also remember that “the most important way you can prevent COVID-19, and at the same time prevent flu, is to wear a mask and social distance,” said Dr. Cutler. You heard him.
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