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 Flu-vaccinated COVID-19 patients have easier surgeries
COVID-19 patients who require surgery appear to face fewer
complications if they have previously been vaccinated against the
flu, new data suggest. In a preliminary study that has not yet
undergone peer review, researchers analyzed outcomes after various
types of surgery on nearly 44,000 COVID-19 patients worldwide, half
of whom had received a flu vaccine in the previous six months. In a
presentation
https://www.sciencedirect.com/
science/article/
pii/S1072751521006700 on Saturday at the annual meeting of the
American College of Surgeons, they reported that flu-vaccinated
patients had significantly fewer serious blood infections, fewer
potentially life-threatening blood clots in their veins, fewer
serious wound-healing problems, and fewer heart attacks.
The flu
vaccine was also linked with lower rates of stroke, pneumonia and
death. The study cannot prove that flu vaccines were protective, and
"the flu shot is by no means a substitute for COVID-19 vaccination,"
said study leader Susan Taghioff of the University of Miami Miller
School of Medicine in Florida. "We strongly recommend that everyone
get both their flu and COVID-19 vaccines this year in accordance
with current guidelines."
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 COVID-19 virus spread largely
undetected in early 2020
The virus that causes COVID-19 was circulating
undetected in the United States and Europe as
early as January 2020 and was becoming
widespread well before broad testing was
implemented, a new computer model suggests. By
March 2020, for every SARS-CoV-2 infection
diagnosed in the United States, another 97 to 99
infections went undetected, according to a
report published in Nature https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04130-w
on Monday. "Transmission is likely to have begun
by late January in California and early February
in New York state, but possibly up to two weeks
earlier in Italy," said coauthor Alessandro
Vespignani of Northeastern University in Boston.
A shortage of tests, plus narrow criteria for
testing, helped the virus to spread undetected,
he said. "If testing had been more widespread
and not restricted to having a travel history
from China, there would have been opportunity
for earlier detection and intervention,"
Vespignani said.
Click for a Reuters graphic https://tmsnrt.rs/3c7R3Bl
on vaccines in development.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Tiffany
Wu)
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