Tag Archives: flu shots

Vaccines not linked to menstrual changes; COVID, flu shots can go together

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review.

No link seen between vaccines and menstrual changes

Many women have reported noticing changes in their menstrual cycle after being vaccinated against COVID-19 but a new study of 1,273 women in the UK found no correlation, according to a report posted on Monday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. The women in the study kept careful records of their cycles and their vaccination dates. “We were unable to detect strong signals to support the idea” that COVID-19 vaccines are linked to changes in timing or flow of women’s periods, said Victoria Male from Imperial College London. It is possible that larger studies, or studies in other countries, might find links, she said. “It is important to note that most people who report such a change following vaccination find that their period returns to normal the following cycle.” Other studies have found no evidence that the vaccines affect female fertility, Male added.

Safe to get COVID-19 vaccine, flu shot together

It is safe to administer COVID-19 vaccines and flu vaccines to patients at the same time, and doing so might increase vaccination rates, according to a report published on Thursday in The Lancet. Researchers randomly assigned 697 adult volunteers to receive their second dose of either the mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech or the viral-vector vaccine from AstraZeneca/Oxford, along with one of three influenza vaccines for the 2020-2021 season (FluAd or Flucelvax from Seqirus UK or Flublok from Sanofi) or a placebo. Most reactions to the shots were mild or moderate, and antibody responses to the vaccines were not adversely affected by getting two shots at once, the study found. Giving both vaccines at a single appointment “should reduce the burden on health-care services for vaccine delivery, allowing for timely vaccine administration and protection from COVID-19 and influenza for those in need,” the research team concluded.

Lung cancer patients respond well to COVID-19 vaccines

Lung cancer patients may get good protection from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines even while undergoing treatments that suppress the immune system, a small study suggests. From January through July this year, researchers in France administered the vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech to 306 lung cancer patients, 70% of whom had recently received immunosuppressive therapies that impair the body’s ability to respond to vaccines. Patients with COVID-19 antibodies from a previous infection received only one dose; most patients, however, received both doses, according to a paper released on Monday and scheduled for publication in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. About 10% of the patients failed to develop antibodies in response to the first two doses and received a third dose, which successfully induced antibodies in all but three individuals who also had blood disorders known to impair the effect of the vaccines. The researchers noted that before vaccines, the death rate among lung cancer patients who developed COVID-19 was 30%. In this seven-month study, only eight patients, or 2.6% of the total, developed mild cases of COVID-19. Because the study was small and not randomized, the investigators called for more research to confirm their findings.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Tiffany Wu)

Fears of coronavirus second wave prompt flu push at U.S. pharmacies, drugmakers

By Caroline Humer and Julie Steenhuysen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. pharmacy chains are preparing a big push for flu vaccinations when the season kicks off in October, hoping to curb tens of thousands of serious cases that could coincide with a second wave of coronavirus infections.

CVS Health Corp, one of the largest U.S. pharmacies, said it is working to ensure it has vaccine doses available for an anticipated surge in customers seeking shots to protect against seasonal influenza.

Rival chain Rite Aid Corp has ordered 40 percent more vaccine doses to meet the expected demand. Walmart Inc and Walgreens Boots Alliance said they also are expecting more Americans to seek these shots.

Drugmakers are ramping up to meet the demand. Australian vaccine maker CSL Ltd’s Seqirus said demand from customers has increased by 10 percent. British-based GlaxoSmithKline said it is ready to increase manufacturing as needed.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll of 4,428 adults conducted May 13-19 found that about 60 percent of U.S. adults plan to get the flu vaccine in the fall. Typically fewer than half of Americans get vaccinated. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the vaccine for everyone over age 6 months.

Getting a flu shot does not protect against COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus for which there are no approved vaccines. Public health officials have said vaccination against the flu will be critical to help prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed with flu and COVID-19 patients.

“We’re in for a double-barreled assault this fall and winter with flu and COVID. Flu is the one you can do something about,“ Vanderbilt University Medical Center infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner said.

Drugmakers last year produced nearly 170 million doses of influenza vaccine, according to the CDC. There were up to 740,000 hospitalizations and 62,000 deaths in the 2019-2020 flu season that ended last month, the CDC said.

While health insurance typically covers the flu shot at a doctor’s office and other groups offer free flu vaccine clinics, the adult vaccine retails for about $40, putting the U.S. market at up to $6.8 billion. The CDC secures some doses at a discount price in its child vaccination program.

Global revenue for influenza vaccines is about $5 billion, according to Wall Street firm Bernstein, and in the United States each additional 1 percentage point of Americans getting the vaccine is worth $75 million in revenues to drugmakers.

HEAVIER TOLL

CDC Director Robert Redfield has said that flu and COVID-19 combined could exact a heavier toll on Americans than the initial coronavirus outbreak that began this winter.

Some experts said creative ways must be developed to ensure that people are vaccinated against flu because patients may be less likely to see their doctors in person out of fear of getting infected with the coronavirus in medical offices.

Pharmacies, public health clinics and other flu shot providers may need to develop drive-up clinics – popular with COVID-19 diagnostic tests – for flu vaccines, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease.

“My goal is that every single vaccine dose that gets made gets into somebody’s arm to protect them. I don’t want any vaccines left on the shelves or in doctors’ offices,” Messonnier said in an interview.

One reason for reluctance among Americans to get the flu shot is that it does not always prevent disease, in part because the flu strains selected as targets of the vaccine months ahead of time are not always a perfect match for the dominant flu strains that actually circulate in any given season. But the shots reliably reduce hospitalizations every year, according to experts.

“Even if it protects 35 to 40 percent of the population, it’s a lot better than zero,” University of Minnesota influenza expert Dr. Michael Osterholm said.

In a survey commissioned by CVS Health between January and May, consumers who said they will definitely or are likely to get a flu shot rose from 34 percent to 65 percent. They also said they would increasingly go to pharmacies and less often to a doctor’s office or healthcare centers.

Rite Aid Chief Pharmacy Officer Jocelyn Konrad said the pharmacy chain, which provided about 2.6 million flu shots last year, upped its order by 40 percent this year.

Rite Aid said social distancing policies may cut into workplace flu clinics but that it may offer voucher programs to employers and is considering setting up drive-through clinics. In Australia, where the winter flu season is underway, such sites are already in use.

Some U.S. doctors are also considering clinics in parks and community centers and even home visits for vulnerable patients, said David Ross, vice president of commercial operations for North America at Seqirus.

“As we look at immunization this coming fall, it will play an enormous role in this battle against COVID-19,” Ross said.

(Reporting by Caroline Humer in New York and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Additional reporting by Grant Smith in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Will Dunham)

U.S. officials warn ‘intense’ flu season to continue, urge shots

: A box of masks is shown in the emergency room at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, California, U.S., January 18, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake

(Reuters) – Adults who get a flu shot are 36 percent less likely to get the disease, while for children the figure was an unexpectedly high 59 percent, U.S. health officials said on Thursday, predicting that the current “intense” season could continue for weeks.

Anyone not already immunized should get a flu shot despite the lateness of the season, because “some protection is better than none,” one of the officials told a news briefing.

A total of 63 children in the United States have died of influenza this season, and three-quarters of them did not get a vaccine, said Anne Schuchat, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“This flu season continues to be extremely challenging and intense, with very high levels of office visits for flu and hospitalization rates, all indications that flu activity is high and likely to continue for several more weeks,” Schuchat said.

Flu symptom rates are close to those seen in the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic and for the past few weeks the whole country has been experiencing the flu, she said.

The current vaccine’s effectiveness rate is based on an interim study conducted nationally through Feb. 3 covering thousands of people, Schuchat said.

Effectiveness against the season’s dominant strain, the H3N2 strain, was lower at about 25 percent. It was better against the other viruses, at 67 percent against H1N1 and 42 percent against influenza B viruses, she said.

Getting the shot can mean the difference between a mild illness and a hospital stay, Schuchat said, particularly for people at higher risk such as children and the aged.

“There’s still plenty of time. Go get a flu shot. Do it for yourself, your family and your community,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told the briefing.

As many as 646,000 people are dying globally from seasonal influenza each year, U.S. health officials said in December, a rise from earlier assessments of the disease’s death toll.

(Reporting by Eric Walsh in Washington and Stephanie Kelly in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)