Flu shots helped make flu season disappear, prioritizing front-line health care workers keep them on the job
By
Will Collette
Both
report summaries appear below.
The
first report says that people who got this year’s flu vaccine (as Cathy and I
did), not only didn’t get the flu but faced lower risk from COVID. Getting
vaccinated for flu did lower our risk of contracting COVID and, according to
the data, people who had gotten flu shots had generally milder cases.
The
second report discusses the positive effect on the battle against COVID that
was gained by giving front-line health care workers top priority to get
vaccinated against COVID when the first vaccines were approved. It immediately
reduced the number of positive cases and may have saved our health care system
from collapsing during the winter COVID surge.
Both
studies underscore the value of getting vaccinated, not just for yourself, but
for your whole community.
Here
are the two reports:
Flu shot associated with fewer, less severe COVID cases, study finds
Michigan Medicine - University of
Michigan
People who received a flu shot last
flu season were significantly less likely to test positive for a COVID-19
infection when the pandemic hit, according to a new study. And those who did
test positive for COVID-19 had fewer complications if they received their flu
shot.
These new findings mean senior
author Marion Hofmann Bowman, M.D., is continuing to recommend the flu shot to
her patients even as the flu season may be winding down.
"It's particularly relevant for
vaccine hesitance, and maybe taking the flu shot this year can ease some angst
about the new COVID-19 vaccine," says Hofmann, an associate professor of
internal medicine and a cardiologist at the Michigan Medicine Frankel
Cardiovascular Center. Michigan Medicine is the academic medical center of the
University of Michigan.
Researchers reviewed medical charts for more than 27,000 patients who were tested for a COVID-19 infection at Michigan Medicine between March and mid-July of 2020. Of the nearly 13,000 who got a flu shot in the previous year, 4% tested positive for COVID-19.
Of the
14,000 who hadn't gotten a flu shot, nearly 5% tested positive for COVID-19.
The association remained significant after controlling for other variables
including ethnicity, race, gender, age, BMI, smoking status and many comorbid
conditions, Hofmann says.
People who received their flu shot
were also significantly less likely to require hospitalization, although the
researchers didn't find a significant difference in mortality between the two
groups. No one in the study tested positive for both infections at the same
time.
The underlying mechanism behind the
association isn't yet clear, Hofmann says.
"It is possible that patients
who receive their flu vaccine are also people 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 vaccine on the immune
system relevant for the fight against SARS-CoV-2 virus," she says.
Prospective longitudinal studies to
examine the effect of the flu vaccine on respiratory illness are ongoing,
including the Household Influenza Vaccine Evaluation (HIVE) study through the
University of Michigan's School of Public Health.
"It's powerful to give
providers another tool to encourage their patients to take advantage of
available, effective, safe immunizations," says co-first author Carmel
Ashur, M.D., M.S., an assistant professor of internal medicine and a
hospitalist at Michigan Medicine.
Months ago, Hofmann was concerned
about misinformation she kept seeing online that connected the flu vaccine with
a COVID-19 infection. Prominent media outlets like Reuters debunked this
theory, and she knew her team's data could also help address vaccine hesitancy.
"Instead of a concerning
connection between COVID-19 and the flu shot, our publication provides more
confidence that getting your flu shot is associated with staying out of the
hospital for COVID-19," she says.
Before the pandemic hit, Hofmann and
co-first author Anna Conlon, Ph.D., a U-M Medical School student, educated
Frankel CVC patients about another encouraging association with the flu
vaccine: cardiovascular protective effects.
"There's robust data that the
flu shot prevents heart attack and hospitalizations for heart failure, which is
an additional reason to get your vaccine every flu season," Conlon says.
Benefit
of early vaccination on health care workforce
UT
Southwestern Medical Center
Vaccinating
health care workers resulted in an immediate and notable reduction of positive
COVID-19 cases among employees, reducing the number of required isolations and
quarantines by more than 90 percent, according to data at UT Southwestern
Medical Center published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Health care
workers were among the first groups to be eligible for vaccination.
"Real-world
experience with SARS-CoV-2 vaccination at UT Southwestern demonstrated a marked
reduction in the incidence of infections among our employees, preserving the
workforce when it was most needed," notes Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D.,
president of UT Southwestern and senior author.
During the first
31 days of vaccinations becoming available, UT Southwestern provided a first
dose to 59 percent of roughly 23,000 employees, while 30 percent were able to
be fully vaccinated in that time frame. Among the findings:
- 1.5 percent became infected.
- Infection rates were highest -- 2.6 percent -- among nonvaccinated employees.
- Infection rates were lowest -- .05 percent -- among those fully vaccinated.
"Our
ability to quickly vaccinate a majority of our workforce in the midst of what
became the largest surge to date in the region made a critical difference in
ensuring we were able to continue providing top-flight care while health
systems were strained," says John Warner, M.D., executive vice president
for health system affairs at UT Southwestern.
Researchers also
saw advantages among partially vaccinated individuals, and from Jan. 9, the
actual number of positive tests among all UT Southwestern employees was
consistently lower than the number projected.
The data also
show continued need to address vaccine hesitancy, with UT Southwestern now
approaching 70 percent immunization among its workforce.
"In light
of this real-world experience clearly demonstrating the effectiveness of
immunization, further understanding of the reticence of some individuals to
take advantage of vaccination bears even greater importance," says first
author William Daniel, M.D., vice president and chief quality officer at UT
Southwestern.
UT Southwestern
has provided educational outreach to community groups and businesses, developed
extensive online resources including Q&As and blogs, and is preparing to
launch a multilingual public service announcement campaign to help educate
diverse communities about vaccination and address issues of hesitancy.
"It is
important to reach out across multiple platforms to effectively address
people's questions so that we can continue to make progress on vaccine
hesitancy," says Marc Nivet, Ed.D., executive vice president for
institutional advancement at UT Southwestern.
Dr. Daniel,
professor of internal medicine, holds the William T. Solomon Professorship in
Clinical Quality Improvement at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Nivet is
associate professor of family and community medicine. Dr. Podolsky, professor
of internal medicine, holds the Philip O'Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D.
Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration and the Doris and
Bryan Wildenthal Distinguished Chair in Medical Science. Dr. Warner, professor
of internal medicine, holds the Nancy and Jeremy Halbreich, Susan and Theodore
Strauss Professorship in Cardiology and the Jim and Norma Smith Distinguished
Chair for Interventional Cardiology.