July 1, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic had already set in. Maharashtra reported a new single-day high of a staggering 5,537 fresh cases, as the state’s total case tally breached the 1.8 lakh-mark to reach 1,80,298. Mumbai city’s death toll rose to 4,631. Vile Parle resident Ajay Nadkarni, a bank employee who had been working from home at the time, was anxious. “What if something happens to mum?” Nadkarni was visibly uneasy. “My 71-year-old mother, Vidya Nadkarni, was diagnosed with Stage 4 Chronic Kidney Disease some three-and-a-half years ago. Her condition is delicate, she needs dialysis three times a week. After Andheri’s Criti Care Hospital was turned into a COVID-19 facility, we moved her dialysis sessions to KLS Hospital in Irla. COVID-19 numbers were sky-rocketing, and there was no sign of a vaccine anytime soon,” shares the 33-year-old. So, he turned to the Internet. How could he save his immunocompromised (impaired immune system) mother from COVID?

A study, published on the preprint server medRxiv in June 2020, showed that the odds of severe COVID-19 infection, ventilatory support requirement, and death are reduced with an influenza vaccine. The study, which involved over 92,000 patients with COVID-19 in Brazil, also reported lower mortality following the flu vaccination. It stated: “The researchers found that in the non-immunised group [those who had not taken a flu shot], the COVID-19 mortality rose from about 14 per cent in the under-10 age group to 84 per cent among those aged 90 years or more. However, mortality was lower in all age groups in the immunised group [those who had taken a flu shot], with the risk being 17 per cent lower in the 10-19 age group, and 3 per cent less in those aged 90 years and more.”