Influenza research highlights the difficulty of achieving COVID-19 “hard immunity”

Mr Dudley said that some of the steps taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as wearing masks, washing hands, and physical distance, should also help prevent the spread of seasonal flu.

“COVID-19 will probably encourage more people to be vaccinated against influenza.” Brandon YangTold Healthline that he was the first author and researcher of health policy at UCSF.

“But during the pandemic, especially in primary care, opportunities for influenza vaccination are much more limited, as face-to-face healthcare visits have dramatically diminished in favor of remote visits. Is particularly important when the widespread availability of influenza vaccines outside of traditional clinics, such as in a grocery store pharmacy.

However, Dr. Faisel SaidNational Director of Primary Care at ChenMed, which operates primary care healthcare services for seniors in 10 states, may see the US response to COVID-19 actually reduce the chances of vaccination against influenza this year He said.

“I’m not confident in our healthcare system for now,” Sid told Healthline. “From all the misinformation about COVID-19, I can’t imagine that it would intensify someone’s desire to get a flu vaccine in some way.”

Protester Took you to the street For example, on a Massachusetts weekend after state officials mandated a flu vaccination for all students returning to class this fall.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) set a goal of 65% of Americans being vaccinated against influenza in order to establish herd immunity and prevent large-scale influenza outbreaks in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic. Announced.

“This fall is not as important as increasing Americans’ decision to confidently adopt the flu vaccine.” Dr. Robert R. RedfieldCDC director said recently JAMA Network Video Interview..

“This year is an important year to prevent flu as much as possible.”

Redfield has previously said that the combination of influenza and COVID-19 could make fall 2020 the worst ever experienced in the United States in terms of public health.

“COVID-19 has expanded our resources beyond what we were ready to process,” says Syed. “It doesn’t take much of a flu season to push the already tense health system into the abyss.”

However, Dr. Charles C. BaileyCOVID-19 “takes the risk of flu more seriously and benefits compliance with vaccination and other precautions” to Healthline, Medical Director of Infection Control at St. Joseph and Mission Hospitals in Southern California. I said.

The annual flu season usually begins in October and peaks between December and January. Mr Bailey said the “bad flu season” seems to have not progressed so far between the precautions related to COVID-19 and the lessons learned in the healthcare system.

Achieving 65% vaccination coverage, as the CDC wants, will be unprecedented. However, it is still at the minimum of what is needed to achieve herd immunity to the flu.

Similarly, World Health Organization experts At least 60-70% of the infected population is required to achieve COVID-19 herd immunity — persists once ill with the new coronavirus Immunity, Which has not yet been definitively proven.

Frank Sloan, PhD, a co-author of the study and a health economist at the Sanford School of Public Health at Duke University in North Carolina, warned that herd immunity “has probably never been achieved with influenza.” .. “

The study’s authors called for a public health campaign to increase influenza vaccination coverage, especially among the at-risk populations identified in their study.

“Influenza vaccination needs to be readily available without spending a lot of time on the part of potential recipients,” Sloan said.

“Employers need to provide them. Pharmacies should be encouraged to promote them. This score is improving. More pharmacies are in supermarkets buying food than before.”

Researchers said educational campaigns are needed to overcome the myths about vaccine risk. They added that mandatory vaccination should be considered in certain circumstances, such as school population and work.

of Washington Post Reported this week Dr. Scott W Atlas, A neuroradiologist at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, California, and a member of the Trump administration’s COVID-19 Task Force, the United States spreads new coronaviruses to achieve herds from prevention and containment strategies Advocating moving to a strategy that allows that. Immunity.

That would be a fatal mistake, Sloan said.

“I don’t want to achieve herd immunity to COVID without an effective vaccine,” he told Healthline. “There will be too many deaths along the way.”