Can Flu Vaccine Increase COVID Risk?

The article quoted below was published on Mercola.com on Tuesday, January 12th. I have found them to be a reliable source of factual information. Constructive feedback welcome.

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STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• Among people aged 65 years and older, flu vaccination was positively associated with COVID-19 deaths, meaning those who got a flu vaccine were more likely to die from COVID-19
• A May 2020 analysis by online news publication The Gateway Pundit similarly found that European countries with the highest COVID-19 death rates had high rates of flu vaccination — at least 50% — among the elderly
• Previous coronavirus vaccines have been linked to enhanced disease; it’s suggested flu vaccination could potentially contribute to COVID-19 via pathogenic priming, a scenario in which, rather than enhancing your immunity against the infection, exposure to a vaccine results in more severe disease
• Given the increasing research suggesting flu vaccination may worsen viral illness, flu vaccines should be evaluated as potential causative agents or, at least, contributors to the COVID-19 pandemic

For years, concerns have been raised that previous flu vaccination seems to increase patients’ risk of contracting more severe pandemic illness. This occurred during the 2008 to 2009 flu season, when prior vaccination with the seasonal flu vaccine was associated with an increased risk of H1N1 “swine flu” during spring/summer 2009 in Canada.1

A January 2020 study published in the journal Vaccine also found people were more likely to get some form of coronavirus infection if they had been vaccinated against influenza during the 2017 to 2018 flu season.2

Compared to unvaccinated individuals, those who had received a seasonal flu shot were 36% more likely to contract unspecified coronavirus infection (it did not specifically mention SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19) and 51% more likely to contract human metapneumovirus (hMPV) infection, which has symptoms similar to COVID-19.3

Again, in October 2020, another positive association was found between COVID-19 deaths and flu vaccination rates in the elderly,4 raising further questions about the potentially serious unintended side effects of annual flu shots.
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The source article is below. You need to create a free account in order to access it:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/...1/12/can-flu-vaccine-increase-covid-risk.aspx

 

Why should I clutter with the gibberish that is produced by Mercola to read 30 yo information about vitamin C and odd, irrational treatises on claiming that children who go to the doctor more often are more sick than kids who never go to the doctor?

This current claims of utterly unsupportable "associations" of flu shots magically means 36% more unspecified coronavirus infection? Puhlease!

This kind of fairy-story yet fear-based never-ending litany of the "horrors of vaccination" to discourage all vaccination, especially ones to are killing 100s of thousands of our elderly (like me) in order to market sell super-megadoses of nostrils and terrorise the real medicine and a decent, healthy diet.

 

You have no need to read the article. But then, your goal here isn't to offer constructive criticism, but rather to insult a source you don't trust. Not the type of comment I'm interested in responding to.

 

I heard this discussed several times during the last 12 months. For those facilities who asked the question of patients "do you take the annual flu shot", however many facilities that might have involved, those who answered 'yes' were found to do worse once infected by a factor of about a third.

No surprise to me. I have not taken a flu shot since Fall 1969.