Children who get a seasonal flu shot are less likely to have symptoms of a COVID-19 infection, promising research shows
- American researchers looked at a group of more than 900 children in Arkansas
- Half had been vaccinated with the seasonal flu shot and the other half had not received it
- Data shows kids who got a flu shot are 29 percent less likely to develop symptoms of Covid-19
Children who get the annual flu shot are less likely to develop symptoms of Covid-19, a study shows.
Researchers looked at medical records of 905 children who tested positive for Covid-19 when they were admitted to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital System between February 1 and August 30, 2020. About half had had the seasonal flu shot.
However, the data shows that children who got a flu shot were 29 percent less likely to develop symptoms of Covid-19 after infection with the coronavirus.
Those vaccinated against influenza were also found to have a 32 percent reduced risk of developing respiratory symptoms and a 33 percent decrease in the chance of developing serious illness, the scientists found.
Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia, who led the study, believe the flu shot may provide immunological protection against Covid due to a biological phenomenon known as “viral interference.”
Data shows that children who received a flu shot are 29 percent less likely to develop symptoms of Covid-19 if infected with the coronavirus (stock)
“It is known that the growth of one virus can be inhibited by a previous viral infection,” explains Dr. Anjali Patwardhan, co-author of the study.
‘[Virus interference] can occur even if the first virus invader is an inactivated virus, as with the flu vaccine. ‘
Nearly two-thirds of the patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 had no symptoms, but of those who did (88 percent) were only mild cases.
Those vaccinated for influenza were also found to have a 32 percent reduced risk of developing respiratory symptoms, study shows (Stock)
Unlike adults, it has been repeatedly found that children during the pandemic are largely unaffected by a coronavirus infection.
They account for a minimal percentage of symptomatic cases, and even less for hospital admissions and deaths.
For example, only 32 of the 74,786 Covid-related hospital deaths recorded by NHS England on February 4, 2021, were of people under 19, about 4.2 percent.
Separate data from the Office for National Statistics data reports that on Jan. 22, there were 103,394 deaths related to Covid-19, and only 11 of those were in people under 14 – 1.35 percent.
However, the role of children as carriers of the virus remains relatively unknown, with experts debating whether they can harbor and spread the virus while remaining asymptomatic.
“Research in the pediatric population is critical because children play an important role in influencing viral transmission,” said Dr. Patwardhan.
Understanding the relationship and coexistence of other viruses besides COVID-19 and knowing the pediatric patient’s vaccination status can help deploy the right strategies to get the best results.
The research is published in Cereus.