A new subject has found an challenging affiliation between mass who received a flu shot in the 2019/2020 influenza season and COVID-19 . When the pandemic smasher , these hoi polloi were less likely to examine positive for the disease , and those who did get it had on average few complications compare to the hoi polloi who had not taken the vaccinum .

The work is published in theAmerican Journal of Infection Controland looked at 27,201 people who were quiz for COVID-19 by July 2020 . Of those , 1,218 multitude test positive for COVID-19 . When the people try out were divide into those who received a flu vaccine in the year before and who had n’t , the squad found a deviation .

Of those who received a flu vaccine , 4 pct tested positive for COVID-19 , while the fraction that did n’t receive it was eminent at 4.9 percent . The   team controlled for variables such as ethnic background signal , grammatical gender , age , as well as wellness - link up component such as smoke . The difference is little in absolute terms , but quite high in relative terms . It means that   patients   were 24 pct less probable to test positive for COVID if they had   their grippe injection .

The team also showed that mass who receive their flu shot were also less probable to require hospitalisation compare to those that did not . It is undecipherable at this stage if the cause for this association is biological ( the flu vaccinum somehow prepares the resistant arrangement against a dissimilar type of virus ) or if it is social .

“ It is potential that patients who receive their flu vaccine are also the great unwashed who are practicing more social distancing and following CDC guidelines . However , it is also plausible that there could be a direct biological effect of the flu vaccinum on the immune organization relevant for the fight against SARS - CoV-2 computer virus , ” senior generator Professor Marion Hofmann Bowman , from the Michigan Medicine Frankel Cardiovascular Center , said in astatement .

The possible association is welcome news , as misinformation was spreading last year that flu vaccines werefalsely connectedto COVID-19 infection . This oeuvre shows that the opponent is the case , with the flu vaccinum in reality moderate to better wellness issue when it get along to the pandemic .

“ It ’s powerful to give providers another tool to encourage their patients to take advantage of available , efficient , safe immunizations , ” added co - first author Professor Carmel Ashur from Michigan Medicine .

Previous work showeda positive associationbetween the grippe vaccinum and the prevention of heart attacks and hospitalization related to spunk failures . Really corking news all around for influenza vaccines !