How have people compared covid-19 and influenza?
“Just like the flu” was a way for people who wanted to minimize the seriousness of the SARS-CoV-2 disease to say that they thought lockdown measures were excessive.
Groups of experts started discussing the potential evolution of SARS-CoV-2 into something more “flu-like” as the pandemic spread. This was the logical conclusion, according to some virologists, of a virus becoming less lethal so that it could spread in the population. Fewer hosts being killed increases the likelihood of the virus spreading to new hosts.
The disease covid-19 itself and the way we are learning to “live with the virus” are the final two factors. According to the World Health Organization, influenza kills between 290,000 and 650, 000 people worldwide annually.
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What are the viruses aiming for?
According to Wendy Barclay, head of the Department of Infectious Disease and chair in influenza virology at Imperial College London, both SARS-CoV-2 and the influenza virus target the respiratory epithelium, making their target cells similar in that regard. However, the conditions that each virus needs to infect people vary. A 2020 study discovered that SARS-CoV-2 uses protein S to infect humans, whereas influenza needs haemagglutinin and neuraminidase.
How do their symptoms differ?
According to Cheryl Walter, a virologist and lecturer in biomedical science at the University of Hull, there are similarities between acute infections—people typically experience a sore throat, a runny nose, and possibly a general feeling of fever and achiness. However, covid-19 has produced a number of symptoms not typically associated with the flu, as is well known. She claims that researchers are still working to determine why some people lose their sense of taste and smell.
One distinction between the two is that SARS-CoV-2 appears to occasionally cause a more significant immune response, which causes some people to become seriously ill. “We see that the immune response varies from person to person and that it can mean the difference between life and death,”
What about variants?
As is well known, SARS-CoV-2 is constantly evolving and changing, creating new variants that are causing new waves. This pattern of behavior is consistent with how new influenza variants behave each year, which is why the flu vaccine must be revised each year to account for variants that appear during the earlier winter months in the southern hemisphere.
This year alone has seen at least four omicron “subvariants under monitoring,” as the World Health Organization calls them, including BA.4 and BA.5, which are currently responsible for the majority of infections in the world. This is a significant difference from SARS-CoV-2 in that it has evolved much more quickly. In contrast to influenza, this has persisted even during the warmer months, making it difficult for vaccination campaigns to keep up.
How is vaccination handled?
The pandemic is currently focused on new variants and declining immunity, with a focus on routine booster shots that are specially tailored to the new variants to boost immunity. Although the rate at which new covid variants are appearing presents a challenge for the development of new booster vaccine formulations, this is comparable to the annual flu shot.
Covid booster shots are being rolled out in conjunction with the well-known yearly flu vaccination campaign. Similar to last year, the NHS in the UK is running two vaccination programs concurrently this fall and winter. This autumn’s seasonal covid booster campaign will coincide with the annual winter flu vaccination season, making 26 million people in England eligible for the shot.
The NHS is advising general practitioners and hospital hubs to try to vaccinate patients against the flu and avian influenza at the same time “where possible.
Similar to the flu, covid prioritizes the most vulnerable individuals, including the elderly, immunocompromised individuals, and those with specific conditions like severe asthma. Priority groups—those who needed the vaccine the most—were first offered the covid-19 vaccine during the early stages of its rollout before being made available to people of all ages.
This is distinct from the flu vaccination campaign, which focuses on vulnerable and senior citizens.
Paul Hunter, a virologist and professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, says there will probably be a continuation of the flu vaccine campaign’s increasing resemblance to the disease. Similar to the flu, he speculates that those over 60 may well continue to receive vaccinations for the foreseeable future while younger people are likely to stop.
What distinguishes a booster from an additional dose?
When a person has received all of the recommended doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and their level of immunity has dwindled over time, they are given a booster dose. Details will change depending on the original series you watched. If you want more information, please review the CDC’s booster recommendations, and if you’re unsure if you qualify, consult your doctor. Please note that you will only receive half of the original Moderna dose if you receive the Moderna booster.
Patients with moderately to severely weakened immune systems receive an additional dose. Improved immunocompromised individuals’ response to their initial vaccine series is the goal of this additional dose. Details will change depending on the original series provided. Please read the CDC’s information for people who are moderately to severely immunocompromised for more information, and if you are unsure if you fit the criteria, consult your health care provider.
Conclusion
What’s been overlooked, according to Barclay, is that when SARS-CoV-2 first infected humans, it was a brand-new animal virus that no one had ever seen before. Early on in the pandemic, there was no precedent for the disease, and there was also no immunological priming for the effects of the virus in humans. “The entire world was totally vulnerable. Many of those people were going to become seriously ill because they had no immune system to fall back on.
A lot of populations are not currently in that circumstance. A degree of immunity from exposure to previous variants, vaccination, or both has so far helped to lessen the severity of covid encounters, despite them being more frequent than flu.