A booster shot of a common childhood vaccine could help patients avoid severe effects from a COVID-19 infection.
Getting a booster for a common childhood vaccine could help patients avoid the worst effects of a COVID-19 infection and is one reason AU Health System is offering it to front-line workers.
A booster shot for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine in adults and its beneficial effects for COVID-19 patients has been the subject of much speculation. Physicians and researchers have been intrigued by the low rates of serious disease in children and have speculated that it could be because of childhood vaccinations.
One theory is that the vaccines have a broader impact on the immune system that can help prevent the more serious complications of a severe lung inflammatory response and a chaotic widespread inflammatory response known as sepsis.
"I actually got it," said Dr. Jose Vazquez, the chief of infectious diseases at Augusta University, who has been talking up the booster after the first big paper came out months ago.
The idea is that the live attenuated vaccines, which contain the virus in a form that is too weak to infect but can still elicit a response, cause the body to produce nonspecific immune response cells, in particular myeloid derived suppressor cells.
Those cells can then prevent the severe inflammatory disease such as sepsis caused by the COVID-19 infection, Vazquez said. Two researchers who are friends in New Orleans have shown this effect with a similar live attenuated vaccine in animal models, he said.
"This does not prevent the infection," Vazquez said. "It attenuates the infection or it lessens the intensity of the infection if indeed this is true."
Another theory notes that the weakened viruses in the MMR vaccine are RNA viruses like the one that causes COVID-19, which is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS CoV2. Some researchers have noted a resemblance between the spikes that the measles and rubella viruses use and the one that SARS CoV2 uses to invade cells, which could suggest some cross-protection against that virus from the vaccine.
"They’re similar," Vazquez said, although he finds it less convincing than the other theory.
Still, there is enough evidence of potential good effects and little downside to recommend the booster, he said.
"In general, in my opinion it is a possible benefit with no risk," he said.
That’s why Vazquez has been pushing to offer it to AU Health workers, starting with those on the front lines.
"Everyone in our emergency room has received it" or been offered it, he said. "Everyone in Infectious Diseases who wanted it has gotten it. I think now we are in the process of finishing up those that work in the intensive care units, the ones that deal with the really sick COVID patients."
Workers at the Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home have also gotten the booster, Vazquez said.
He is in the process of creating a study he hopes to start in a month or two that would give the shots to residents in nursing homes. The study would include blood work to look for those immune cells "to see what kind of a boost these elderly individuals in nursing homes and long-term care facilities" get, Vazquez said.
About 40% of the deaths during the pandemic have come from nursing homes, and flu season is about to begin, so "who better to protect than those folks who are in nursing homes" or long-term care, he said.
The Link LonkAugust 18, 2020 at 02:20AM
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Vaccine booster could provide some protection from severe COVID-19 effects - The Augusta Chronicle
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