Vaccines unrelated to menstrual changes; COVID, flu shots can go hand in hand

November 15 (Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the results and that has not yet been peer-certified.

No association observed 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 has found no correlation, according to a report released on Monday. medRxiv before peer review. The women in the study kept careful records of their cycles and dates of vaccination. “We have not been able to detect strong signals to support the idea” that COVID-19 vaccines are linked to changes in the timing or flow of women’s periods, said Victoria Male of the Imperial College of London. It is possible that larger studies, or studies in other countries, will find links, she said. “It is important to note that most people who report such a change after vaccination find that their periods return to normal the next cycle.” Other studies have found no evidence that vaccines affect female fertility, Male added.

Get safely vaccinated against COVID-19 and get the flu shot together

It is safe to give COVID-19 vaccines and flu shots to patients at the same time, and it could increase vaccination rates, according to a report released on Thursday in The Lancet. Researchers randomly assigned 697 adult volunteers to receive their second dose of the mRNA vaccine from Pfizer / BioNTech or the viral vector vaccine from AstraZeneca / Oxford, as well as one of three influenza vaccines for the 2020-2021 season ( FluAd or Flucelvax from Seqirus UK or Flublok from Sanofi) or placebo. Most reactions to the injections were mild or moderate, and antibody responses to the vaccines were not affected by giving two injections at a time, according to the study. Administration of both vaccines in a single appointment “should reduce the burden on health services for vaccine delivery, allowing for rapid administration of vaccines and protection against COVID-19 and influenza for those who do.” need, ”the research team concluded.

Lung cancer patients respond well to COVID-19 vaccines

Lung cancer patients can get good protection against COVID-19 mRNA vaccines even when undergoing treatments that suppress the immune system, suggests a small study. From January to July of this year, researchers in France administered the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to 306 lung cancer patients, 70% of whom had recently received immunosuppressive treatments 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 an article published on Monday and scheduled for publication in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. About 10% of patients did not develop antibodies in response to the first two doses and received a third dose, which was successful in inducing antibodies in all but three individuals who also had blood disorders known to alter effect of vaccines. The researchers noted that before vaccines, the death rate in 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 non-randomized, investigators requested more research to confirm their results.

Click for a Reuters chart on vaccines in development.

Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Tiffany Wu

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