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. 2021 Jan 6;13(1):e12533.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.12533.

The Flu Vaccination May Have a Protective Effect on the Course of COVID-19 in the Pediatric Population: When Does Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Meet Influenza?

Anjali Patwardhan  1 , Adrienne Ohler  2
Affiliations

The Flu Vaccination May Have a Protective Effect on the Course of COVID-19 in the Pediatric Population: When Does Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Meet Influenza?

Anjali Patwardhan et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Background In the midst of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, a lot more chaos could be anticipated in the flu season due to the coexistence of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza with almost similar epidemiologic and clinical features. Could this become a "twindemic" or "syndemic" if there is any viral interference occurs? We investigated the effect of influenza and pneumococcal vaccines on the disease course of SARS-CoV-2 in the pediatric population and the possibility of viral interference. Material and methods After approval from Institutional Review Board, a retrospective electronic chart review on 20 years and younger SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive patients who visited Arkansas Children's Hospital System between February 1 to August 30, 2020, was performed. The clinical data was collected along with influenza and pneumococcal vaccination status of these patients. Results The results showed that viral interference may have played a role in the current flu and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) twindemic. SARS-CoV-2 and influenza may have significantly affected each other's epidemiological features. Conclusion Understanding the relationship and co-existence of other viruses alongside SARS-CoV-2 and knowing the vaccination status of the host population may help in deploying the right strategies to get the best outcomes.

Keywords: covid-19; cross immunoreactivity; herd immunity; influenza vaccine; pneumococcal vaccine; sars-cov-2; viral interference.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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