Covid Vaccines Offer Protection Against 21 Other Viruses, Including Deadly SARS and MERS

A recent study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York suggests that Covid-19 vaccines can provide protection against 21 other viruses, including the potentially deadly SARS and MERS.

The researchers tested blood samples from 85 US citizens who had received two or three doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, had been infected with Covid-19, or both. The study found that those with Covid antibodies also had protective proteins against other coronaviruses, which belong to the same family as SARS and MERS and can cause respiratory and intestinal illnesses.

SARS, which originated in China in 2002, had a mortality rate of around 10% among those infected. MERS, first detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012, has a mortality rate of around 33%.

The study compared the participants’ blood samples with those taken from 15 people before the pandemic. The pre-pandemic samples had antibodies against two cold-causing viruses and one virus affecting cows, while the post-pandemic samples had protective proteins against the majority of the 21 coronaviruses.

The study authors believe that the immune system can recognize and attack coronaviruses more easily due to shared genetic material.

According to the Office For National Statistics, nearly 80% of adults in England have Covid-19 antibodies through vaccination or prior infection.

The study suggests that the global population, with the prevalence of antibodies from Covid-19 infection and vaccination, may have developed increased resistance to various members of the coronavirus family.