COVID-19 is still being studied. There’s no proof that any one treatment or preventive measure could protect you from catching COVID-19. However, administrating flu shots, especially to those at-risk can help garner protection against other respiratory infections and problems which can increase the likelihood of catching COVID-19. Experts say that getting a timely flu vaccination may also help reduce other related illnesses which have similar symptoms.

Some studies done in the early months after the pandemic started also drew an interesting link between COVID hospitalization and flu vaccine driven immunity. According to one study, researchers in Brazil studied 92,000 samples and found out that individuals who took a flu shot were less likely to develop severe forms of COVID with increased natural immunity. Moreover, difference in mortality rates was also observed. Flu vaccination saw a 20% drop in mortality rates for those who took the vaccine before the onset of the disease and 27% in those who took the vaccine after the pandemic’s spread.

A study published in the journal ScienceDirect also suggests that effective vaccination could build innate immunity and may even reduce the risk of respiratory complications associated with the pandemic.

In the US, another worst-affected nation by the COVID crisis, the Centres of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is working on increasing availability of the flu vaccine to stress on the importance and protect high-risk groups.