One study suggests that the flu may help protect you from Covid if you are infected with both at the same time.
Tests showed that the flu can suppress SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the pandemic, preventing it from attacking the lungs.
However, first becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 did not appear to offer any protection against influenza.
Researchers have no evidence that Covid would be milder if someone were affected by the flu a few days earlier.
But they say it does show coinfection, or flurone as it has been nicknamed, “does not pose an imminent threat to humanity.”
Hamsters infected with both viruses simultaneously were no longer likely to suffer a worse outcome.
The New York University study comes amid concerns about a double Covid blow and flu this winter.
New York scientists found that catching the flu and then catching Covid helped suppress the latter, a finding they said meant simultaneous infections of the two respiratory viruses are not an “imminent threat to humanity.”
Covid restrictions could RETURN to “protect NHS”
The UK could return to its “NHS protection” Covid policy if the latest increase in cases and hospital admissions impedes the health service’s ability to treat other conditions, a government minister has admitted.
Lord Syed Kamall, a junior health minister, said the extorted free lateral flow testing scheme could return, as he raised the possibility of mandatory face masks also returning. Both measures were eliminated in April as part of No10’s “Living with Covid” plan.
Yesterday he told the House of Lords: “They [health officials] they still focus on backwardness. If it reaches a point where it is affecting the backlog, measures may need to be introduced clearly. “
Individual hospitals have already begun reintroducing face masks and social distancing into the corridors and waiting rooms, as Covid’s hospital admissions approach a maximum of 18 months, at the first sign of braking returning to the normal life.
There were 1,911 admissions of Covid to England on July 4, the last date with data, and at the current rate they are expected to increase further in the coming days. If the average daily entries exceed 2,100, it will mark the highest figure since the peak of the second wave in January 2021, when there were more than 4,000.
But only a third of patients are sick primarily with Covid, suggesting that increased admissions are a symptom of high rates of infection rather than serious illness.
The majority (64%) are known as “incident” cases: patients who went to the hospital for a different reason but tested positive.
It is estimated that more than 2.7 million Britons were infected with Covid, one in 24 people, by the end of June. Trusts have warned that they are facing an increase in staff absences caused by high levels of transmission to the community, combined with additional admission pressure.
Australia is currently being devastated by its worst flu outbreak in years, prompting warnings that the same situation will affect the northern hemisphere.
The flu was effectively drowned out by the restrictions deployed to fight Covid, meaning the nation has little immunity against it.
Meanwhile, SARS-CoV-2 will continue to circulate potentially wreaking havoc on NHS wards fueling staff absences and increasing admissions.
Public health chiefs in the early days of the pandemic warned that people were in “serious trouble” if they had flurone.
Government research suggested that coinfection doubled the risk of death.
But experts later warned that fears were exaggerated.
Professor Benjamin tenOever, author of the New York University study, said it is important that more studies be done on coinfections.
Tests by his team on hamsters infected with both viruses suggested that having both simultaneously did not result in worse results, regardless of how infected they were.
The same tests also revealed that hamsters preinfected with influenza had lower levels of SARS-CoV-2 than the other groups.
In addition, this suppressive effect on SARS-CoV-2 replication was found to last one week after the rodent’s body had fought the flu.
“These data suggest the presence of intrinsic or induced factors (influenza A virus) that may restrict the growth of SARS-CoV-2,” Professor TenOever said.
“But it is still unclear whether this effect plays a role in the severity of the disease.
“These results suggest that co-infection with SARS-CoV-2 and the influenza A virus does not pose an imminent threat to humanity.”
The article, published in the Journal of Virology, analyzed only one type of flu.
Both viruses, influenza and SARS-CoV-2, replicate in the lungs.
Covid is experiencing a resurgence in the UK, with more than 2.7 million people estimated to be infected with the virus, one in 24 people, by the end of June.
NHS trusts have warned that they are currently facing an increase in staff absences caused by high levels of transmission to the community, combined with additional admission pressure.
And yesterday, Lord Syed Kamall, a junior health minister, admitted that Britain could return to its “NHS protection” Covid policy if the latest increase in cases and hospital admissions impedes health service capacity to treat other conditions.
He said the exorbitant free side flow testing scheme and mandatory facial masks could be some of the measures that will return.
There were 1,911 admissions of Covid to England on July 4, the last date with data, and at the current rate they should increase further.
If the average daily entries exceed 2,100, it will mark the highest figure since the peak of the second wave in January 2021, when there were more than 4,000.
But only a third of patients are sick primarily with Covid, suggesting that increased admissions are a symptom of high rates of infection rather than serious illness.
The majority (64%) are known as “incident” cases: patients who went to the hospital for a different reason but tested positive.