A Flu Vaccine May Provide Some Protection Against Covid-19, Dutch Study Suggests

[Deeq A.]

A box of influenza vaccines, about to be used during a free vaccination event in Los Angeles, California held October 17, 2020.
Photo: Damian Dovarganes (AP)

Preliminary research out this month may provide you with a bit more incentive to get the flu vaccine. It found evidence that flu vaccination led to a lowered risk of getting covid-19 among health care workers in the Netherlands. Though not definitive, the study isn’t the first to suggest that certain vaccines can provide minor, nonspecific protection against infectious diseases not targeted by the vaccine, possibly including covid-19.

The research paper was released on the preprint website medRxiv in mid-October by scientists from the Netherlands and Germany. In it, they detail two separate investigations of the theory that the flu vaccine used in the Netherlands last winter—an inactivated vaccine meant to protect against the four main strains of the influenza virus in circulation—could lower the risk of covid-19. In many countries, including the U.S., this is the primary type of flu vaccine used annually.

Source: Gizmodo

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