Does getting annual flu shot help fight against Covid-19?

[Pin57]

Was wondering about this question and planning to ask my CLL and GP docs what they knew. Plus given all the HU posts on antibodies testing/protection against covid (or not) per post covid vaccine taking, has me thinking various vaccine questions.

Since doc offices are closed today, I did the “no-no” and Googled my question and found a recent article on this very question... (warning it’s a Googled article n don’t know if it’s a validated answer)... but here it is..

medicalnewstoday.com/articl...

Interestingly, study showed it seems to help! I like the word “help” against the evil covid enemy.

Read on CDC web about annual flu shot and in the US that it’s targeted for 2 “A types” and 2 “B types” flus but that it may “help” against others.

A second question .... been wondering why not try more than one covid vaccine to build antibodies?... personally knowing I get the annual flu vaccine (plus other vaccine types, shingles, etc.) so pumping all kinds of vaccines in me on a yearly basis. Seems to be no problem with that.

My CLL doc said there are no studies he’s aware of about multiple covid vaccine taking and it’s effectiveness. Ok, but why not conduct a study?

What have others heard about the subject question? ... and about my later second multiple covid vaccine question?

Call me Curious George

[Panz]

All right Curious George I am in your camp and I have been thinking much the same thing.and have pretty much decided that I will actively seek the Pfizer COVID-19 series. My only reason for waiting is that I want everyone out there to get a shot if they are going to get it as herd immunity is where it is at for all of us.

I haven’t asked anyone one about this as I make my own decisions but I shall share with you my thinking. Some years ago we had a pharmacist who had an issue with vaccines, she didn’t say what her medical issue was but she shared with me the fact that she had to pursue antibody shots for every vaccine she took and that it always took more than one on any vaccine for her to make antibodies. She said that the annual flu shot required 2 and sometimes 3 injections for her to make any antibodies and sometimes even more. She believe firmly in need for vaccines and it was a constant challenge for her. She has since been transferred to another store and I don’t even have her name.

Now, many many years ago I received the first Shingles vaccine against all my doctors warning as it was a live vaccine and very much off limits for CLL people. That was to have been a one time deal and because I had seen my Grandma and my Mother both suffer from shingles for ever I had decided I would take my chances with that vaccine. Well, five years later I got the Shingles...not a severe case as I had see severe cases and knew full well what they looked like, however, my shingles lasted 3 years! I also had nerve damage that none of the meds handled. So at the end of my outbreak my primary doctor suggested I get the New Shingtrex vaccine, the two shot series and not a live virus and so I did. Three years later I had another Shingle attack....granted it was very mild and almost handled by anti viral meds but not completely. And to this day if I am under an stress what so ever they will pop right out. Stabbing, itching and burning pain which is just so weird as that right side of my trunk is numb. No one has any answers as to why.... but it is now my thinking that I most likely never made any antibodies. No one has ever run an antibody check to see but that is what it is.

Now, it must so happened that when I was going thru my antibody check for the Covid 19 Moderna shots done at six weeks and eight weeks following the second injection, I met a man who had heard that I had had Zero antibodies in two testing and he ask if he could see the reports to just be sure I was reading them right and he was most surprised with what he saw. The two reports were an exact carbon copy of each other. The reason I shared with him my total history was because he has worked for Pfizer for many many years and was most interested in my reports. I asked him what he thought of my seeking another series of Covid 19 vaccine and he said he wouldn’t advise me either way but as he wasn’t a doctor and this was all so new and then he said that if it were his name at the top of the two lab reports he wouldn’t hesitate to pursue another series.

I also told him that I would be first in line for a booster in the Fall and he agreed. So here I am wondering just when I will get serious about the second series.

Now, with the annual Flu shot in the late summer I have been getting the extra strength and have always assumed it protected me as I have avoided the flu. He suggested a flu shot in late summer and another one in January. I hadn’t given that a thought but he said a lot of professional health care people do that....food for thought but the extra strength shot the first of September has served me well.

I receive IVIG every four weeks and have had CLL for going on 32 years with 17 years of Chemo on and off as needed, then just six months on Imbruvica and now 2 years back on Watch and Wait. I live very isolated life style and have no issue doing so as life is very special.

This is where I am at and we shall see when I get my next series of Covid 19. Please keep me posted on which way you are heading. All the very very best to you!

Panz 🙂💕🙏☘️

[Pin57 in reply to Panz]

Good luck and I respect your decision. I hope for the best in your adventure. I want to hear BIG numbers, don’t let me down Panz!

I’ll let ya know if I have any luck.

Rouges we are.

Gotta do, what we gotta do.

[bennevisplace]

You know you've asked a good question when you find out the boffins are already working on it!

Re your second, the mixed-vaccine approach is under investigation. I don't know about the USA, but there is the Com-Cov trial in the UK and the Combivacs study in Spain. Interim findings are all about side effects rather than efficacy. clinicaltrialsarena.com/com...

Again in the UK, the Cov-Boost study may pave the way for a programme of Autumn/ Fall booster vaccinations for more vulnerable people. gov.uk/government/news/worl...

[LeoPa]

Is the shingrix vaccine the same all over the world? or is it geography dependent? I'm done with flu shots. got the first and last one last fall. there is no flu anywhere anyways and as long as I keep avoiding covid I can't catch the flu either. I'd rather leave my immune system alone for a while now that I got a Tetanus booster and will have both Pfizer shots in 2 months. I'll get what I have to but nothing else.

[mantana in reply to LeoPa]

As far as I know, Shingrix vaccine is the same all over the world; also, both shots are identical.

I got my first Shingrix jab in Japan, and the second one in Germany.

[LeoPa in reply to mantana]

Thank you!