WASHINGTON _ Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research are advancing a vaccine that may be able to prevent strains of the common cold in the future.
But their immediate concern is the imminent flu season because nearly seven months since receiving their first samples of the novel coronavirus from a Washington state patient, they still don't know whether catching the flu could increase the chances of getting COVID-19.
"When this virus emerged, it was sort of coming toward the tail end of the flu season. And now we have both, at the same time, and we don't know what that's going to look like," said Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of emerging infectious diseases at Walter Reed in Maryland. "If you get sick with flu, is that going to make you more susceptible of getting COVID or risk of it, or vice versa? We don't know that."
