Coronavirus update as of April 25, 2020: over 2.8 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, over 197,000 deaths, and over 800,000 people who have recovered from the viral respiratory illness, assuming accuracy of the reports. Now, Big Pharma, the World Health Organization (WHO), and others are chomping at the bit to fund, create, push, and profit off vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes this pandemic disease.
But there’s one question related to public health officials’ near-obsession with mass vaccination that not many people have thought to ask: does the common flu vaccine increase the risk of falling ill with COVID-19?
NEW research: Flu shot increases your susceptibility to coronaviruses and other pathogens
The flu season in America is waning, if not officially over (the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention slates the annual flu season as fall and winter, but sometimes extending into May). Unfortunately, the global COVID-19 pandemic is still in effect … and it seems that the fact we’ve long been told to get vaccinated against the seaonal flu adds fuel to this crisis, as you’ll soon see – below.
In a stunning United States Department of Defense (DOD) study just published in January of this year, a researcher confirmed that “receiving influenza vaccination may increase the risk of other respiratory viruses, a phenomenon known as virus interference.” This finding, supported by additional research dating back to the 2003 SARS epidemic and earlier, “goes against” commonplace assumptions that vaccines don’t change the risk of infection from other respiratory diseases.
The author adds, “Vaccine-derived virus interference was significantly associated with coronavirus and human metapneumovirus.”
In other words, getting a flu shot – which is already shown to have questionable effectiveness and is highly dependent on things like age and individual health status – may or may not protect you against influenza … and it could also increase your chances of becoming ill with SARS-CoV-2 if exposed to it.
The Department of Defense study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Vaccine.
High COVID-19 death toll in Italy – just a matter of an elderly population and early lax social distancing? Experts suspect new flu vaccine could be a driving factor
Many health experts are now speculating a jaw-dropping possibility:
One of the reasons why the infection and mortality rate of COVID-19 in Italy was so high (other than the fact that Italy has one of the largest elderly populations in the world) is that in the fall of 2019, mere months before COVID-19 hit, the Italian healthcare system introduced a brand new type of influenza vaccine.
The vaccine, called VIQCC, is produced from animal cells (unlike earlier vaccines derived from eggs) and stimulates a larger response from the immune system. Akin to a “super” vaccine, the vaccination contains as many as four types of viruses. Such an assault on the immune system could very well have induced the “viral intereference” introduced earlier, causing thousands of unsuspecting Italians to be even harder hit by the novel strain of coronavirus.
Elderly people – as well as the healthcare workers who care for this at-risk population – are among the chief targets of flu vaccination campaigns. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Italian Ministry of Health offers the flu vaccine for free to people over 65.
As big business executives, researchers, global health organizations, and pharmaceutical figureheads from around the world furiously race to create a vaccination against the COVID-19, we urge all consumers to remain cautious and vigilant about any promises of “cures” or “protection.” Given the inconclusive nature of vaccines in general – and especially in light of recent revelations – we remain suspicious and very concerned about public health and safety.
