Nancy Lapid

(Reuters.) – Here is a list of recent COVID-19 studies. These include additional research to confirm the findings, and which has not yet been certified by peer review.

There is no link between menstrual change and vaccines

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 found no correlation, according to a report posted on Monday on medRxiv ahead of peer review https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.15.21266317v1. Women in the study maintained detailed records of their cycles as well as their vaccination dates. Victoria Male, Imperial College London said that there were no strong evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines could be linked to changes in the timing and flow of women’s periods. There are other possible links that could be found in larger studies and studies from countries around the world, she stated. Important to remember that many people who experience such a change after vaccination report that their period goes back to normal. Additional studies did not show that vaccinations had any effect on female fertility.

You can get the COVID-19 and flu shots together.

It is safe to administer COVID-19 vaccines and flu vaccines to patients at the same time, and doing so might increase vaccination rates, according to a report published on Thursday in The Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02329-1/fulltext. Researchers randomly selected 697 volunteers from the community to receive the second dose of either Pfizer/BioNTech’s mRNA or viral vaccine, as well as one of three influenza vaccines (FluAd, Flucelvax from Seqirus UK and Flublok). Sanofi (NASDAQ: )), or a placebo. According to this study, most reactions to shots were moderate or mild. Additionally, antibody responses to vaccines weren’t adversely affected by two shots in one appointment. The research team stated that giving both vaccines in one appointment could reduce burden on healthcare services, which would allow for quicker vaccine administration. They also provide protection against influenza and COVID-19 for people who are most vulnerable.

Patients with lung cancer respond well to COVID-19 vaccinations

One small study found that patients with lung cancer may be protected by mRNACOVID-19 vaccines. This is even when they have been treated for immunosuppression. Pfizer/BioNTech administered the vaccine to the 306 patients with lung cancer from January to July. 70% of these patients had just received immunosuppressive therapy that slows down the body’s ability to react to vaccines. The first dose of vaccine was given to patients with COVID-19 antibody from an earlier infection. Most patients received two doses. A paper published Monday in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology http:// reveals that 10% of patients did not develop antibodies to either of the doses. Patients who had received immunosuppressive therapies such as chemotherapy or radiation were asked to receive a third dose. This dose successfully inducing antibodies in patients without blood conditions known to affect the effectiveness of vaccines. According to the researchers, COVID-19-related lung cancer deaths were at 30% before vaccinations. Eight patients were able to develop mild COVID-19 in this study over a seven month period. That’s 2.6% of all the participants. Investigators required more research in order to verify their findings, as the small study wasn’t random.

Click for a Reuters graphic https://tmsnrt.rs/3c7R3Bl on vaccines in development.