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  • Thanks to Brilliant for supporting this  episode of SciShow. Go to Brilliant.org/SciShow  

  • to learn how you can take your  STEM skills to the next level.

  • Also, as our usual disclaimer, this  episode was filmed on November 17,  

  • 2020, and you can find any newer COVID-19 coverage  in the playlist linked in the description.

  • [♪ intro]

  • It's been a big week for COVID news!

 In one corner, the northern hemisphere is entering  

  • flu season. So researchers are trying to figure  out more about how these two diseases interact.

  • And among other things, they're finding some early  

  • evidence that maybe a flu shot  could protect you against both?

  • Then, in the other corner, there's  been a whole lot of vaccine news  

  • from companies like Pfizer, Moderna, and more.

  • So, let's dive in.

  • As far as the flu and COVID goes, we do have  documented cases of people getting both viruses  

  • at once. But there's a lot we don't know  — including how common this is going to be.

  • But! If there's any good news, it's that some  preliminary research is starting to suggest  

  • fascinatingand encouraging!  — things about the flu vaccine.

  • We already knew flu shots have  a huge impact on flu outbreaks

  • Like, the US Centers for Disease Control estimate  that they prevented 7.52 million infections, over  

  • 100 thousand hospitalizations, and 6300 deaths  in the US during the last flu season alone

  • And that's because the vaccine  

  • teaches the body to specifically spot  and eliminate multiple flu strains.

  • But that's not all it does.

  • It also seems that some versions  of the flu vaccine may ramp up  

  • your nonspecific immune defenses, a  phenomenon called trained immunity

  • It seems like exposure topathogeneven the harmless  

  • versions in a flu vaccinecan ready  the body's front line immune cells

  • These may essentially becomeprimedto react  more aggressively in the presence of danger. 

 

  • And those faster, stronger reactions may  help rally the immune system to fend off  

  • a second invader, even if it's completely  differentlike the virus behind COVID-19.

  • A July preprint may even show  this trained immunity in action.

  • Preprints are scientific papers that  haven't been reviewed by independent  

  • experts yet — so our understanding  of their results might change.

  • But since COVID is so new, they're all  we've got to go on in a lot of cases.

  • In this one from July, researchers analyzed  over 92,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil,  

  • and they discovered that receiving a recent  flu vaccine was connected to fewer deaths  

  • and less severe infection overall.

  • This isn't the only preprint suggesting  that populations with good flu shot coverage  

  • have fewer cases and less  severe COVID-19 infections.

  • But like I said, this is onlypreliminary studyand a flu shot  

  • is no substitute for a proper COVID vaccine.

  • But as folks in the northern hemisphere head into  flu season, it might at least be a silver lining.

  • And speaking of vaccines: In the last week,  

  • multiple companies and organizations have  come out with early results about their  

  • vaccinesfrom Pfizer and Modernato groups from Russia and China.

  • Each group is saying that their vaccines are  doing really well, according to early results.

  • But we're just going to focus on  the Pfizer announcement for now,  

  • because that's where we've been  getting the most questions,  

  • and where we've had the most time to  like, take in and synthesize information.

  • On November 9th, Pfizer and their partner  BioNTech announced some early phase 3 trial  

  • results, courtesy of an independent  data safety and monitoring board.

  • According to their press release, getting  two doses of their COVID-19 vaccine three  

  • weeks apart cut symptomatic COVID-19 cases  in the trial population by more than 90%.

  • Which sounds amazing!

  • But these are also really early resultsThey aren't even published in a preprint,  

  • so experts haven't been able  to look at the study data.

  • Also, that 90% figure is based on the first  94 infections that occurred within a month  

  • of the participants' first injection  of either the vaccine or of a placebo.

  • So, that efficacy number may  change as more data comes in

  • And of course, there are still a lot of unknowns,  

  • like whether the vaccine stops people from  catching the disease or from being contagious,  

  • or just prevents infections  from developing symptoms

  • So, this is extremely encouraging  but also very preliminary

  • And there's an even bigger point here, too: even  if this vaccine is as effective as it sounds,  

  • getting it to everyone probably  won't happen quickly or easily

  • That's because this is a brand new type of vaccine  that uses RNA to essentially teach cells to spot  

  • the virus. And it's super fragile and needs to  be kept very coldlike minus 70 degrees Celsius

  • For comparison, freezers in large hospitals are  usually around minus 2 to minus 8 degrees celsius.

  • So, some experts have warned that  

  • no one has the capacity to do this kind  of distribution on a wide scale yet

  • And of course this may be  especially a big issue in  

  • rural areas, and low- and middle-income countries.

  • Now, not all COVID vaccines in development  require these kinds of extreme temperatures.  

  • So maybe this won't beproblem we need to overcome.

  • In the meantime, this is definitelyreminder that making a working COVID vaccine  

  • is just the start of things.

  • And also, ya know, get your flu shot too! Which, I did, just the other day.

  • And it went fantastically. Didn't even hurt the next day!

  • There's a lot that goes into making a COVID-19  vaccine, and while we can't give you a tutorial on  

  • how to do it, we can at least say that Brilliant  can hook you up with some good biology courses.

  • Brilliant's courses are designed by math  and science educators, and cover science,  

  • engineering, math, and computer science topics

  • If you liked this episode, you might  enjoy their Computational Biology course,  

  • which deals with subjects  like genetics and evolution.

  • To try it out, you can go  to Brilliant.org/SciShow.  

  • And if you're one of the first 200  people to sign up there, you'll get 20%  

  • off the annual Premium subscription  — and support SciShow along the way.

  • [♪ outro]

Thanks to Brilliant for supporting this  episode of SciShow. Go to Brilliant.org/SciShow  

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