9 FEBRUARY 2021 No virus is an island. Once a virus establishes itself within a cell, other viruses that manage to make their way into that already infected cell may find themselves unable to respond in their usual way – either for better or for worse.
A new study suggests that SARS-CoV-2 might have less of a foothold in some populations after other completely unrelated vaccines, such as the flu or pneumococcal shots. "It is known that the growth of one virus can be inhibited by a previous viral infection," says University of Missouri paediatric rheumatologist Anjali Patwardhan. "This phenomenon is called virus interference, and it can occur even when the first virus invader is an inactivated virus, such as the case with the flu vaccine."