Centenarians exposed to the Spanish flu in their early life better survived to COVID-19

In this study, the striking temporal coincidence between the outbreak of the Spanish flu epidemic and the birth of the cohorts characterized by greater fragility towards COVID-19 in 2020 strongly suggests a link between exposure to 1918 H1N1 pandemic influenza and resistance towards 2020 SARS-Cov-2. It can be speculated that the lifetime persistence of cross-reactive immune mechanisms has enabled centenarians exposed to the Spanish flu to overcome the threat of COVID-19 a century later.PMID:34570724 | DOI:10.18632/aging.203577
Source: Aging - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research