If you’ve had COVID-19, you may have some protection against some versions of the common flu.
A new study suggests that previous COVID-19 infections reduce the risk of contracting colds caused by the coronavirus’ milder cousins, which could provide a key to expanding COVID-19 vaccines.
“We think there is going to be a future outbreak of a coronavirus,” said Dr. Manish Sagar, lead author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. “Vaccines could be improved if we replicate some of the immune responses that are provided by a natural infection.”
The study evaluated COVID-19 PCR tests performed on more than 4,900 people who sought medical care between November 2020 and October 2021. After controlling for things like age, gender and pre-existing conditions, Sagar said he and his colleagues found that people who had previously had COVID-19 were 50% less likely to develop a common cold with symptoms caused by a coronavirus compared to people who were, at that time, fully vaccinated and had not contracted COVID-19.
Several viruses cause colds; Coronaviruses are thought to be responsible for about one in five colds.
Researchers linked protection against colds caused by coronaviruses with the response of antivirus cells to two specific viral proteins. These proteins are not currently used in most vaccines, but researchers propose adding them in the future.
“Our studies suggest that these could be novel strategies for better vaccines that not only address current coronaviruses, but any future coronaviruses that may emerge,” said Sagar, of Boston Medical Center.
Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas who was not involved in the study, said the findings should not be seen as a knock against current vaccines, which target the spike protein found on the surface of the SARS virus. -CoV-2 that causes COVID-19.
These vaccines, he commented, remain “your best defense against severe COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death.”
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