New studies on flu vaccines and dementia prevention, young bats the ‘brewing pot’ of coronaviruses, maternity health outcomes in the public and private sectors

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A study in Wales has found that new flu and shingles vaccines can have an effect on dementia prevention in the long term. Research by the University of Sydney has collected faeces samples to discover that young bats are the ‘brewing pot’ for coronaviruses rather than adult bats, as previously believed. A birth study has compared private and public maternity care, highlighting greater adverse health outcomes in the public sector. However, there are criticisms about how each sector was compared and whether it’s a fair contrast.

Transcript

00:00There was a study in Wales where at a certain date, people whose 70th birthday was before

00:08this date didn't get shingles vaccine, and then after that date, if their birthday fell

00:13after that date, their 70th birthday, they did get shingles vaccine.

00:17So it was a natural experiment.

00:19And in the group of people who got the shingles vaccine, and this is the old shingles vaccine,

00:22which is not as effective as the new one, the rate of dementia fell by about 17%.

00:29And it's thought that this was due to the prevention of shingles and that the chickenpox

00:34virus may have something to do with stirring up whatever it is that causes dementia, particularly

00:40Alzheimer's disease.

00:41So that was one piece.

00:42And the assumption is that the new version of the shingles vaccine being even more effective

00:47is even more effective at preventing dementia in the longer term.

00:51Now, this is a study looking at older Americans with very good health records.

00:59And they were comparing shingles vaccine with the new respiratory syncytial vaccine with

01:06flu vaccine.

01:07So in many ways, flu vaccine was the control here.

01:11And what they showed was really perplexing, is that not years after they got the immunization,

01:17so what they found was an effect of both the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine and the

01:23shingles vaccine, and not over years, but over actually months, lowering the incidence of

01:29what they expected with dementia compared to people who just had the flu vaccine.

01:34And so nobody's suggesting here that respiratory syncytial virus causes dementia or is somehow

01:40at the root of this.

01:41What they think was going on was an additional benefit to the vaccine itself.

01:47And this is the substance that many vaccines have something, a chemical inside the vaccine

01:54or attached to it, which amplifies the immune response.

01:58It's called an adjuvant.

01:59And the RSV vaccine and the new shingles vaccine have the same adjuvant to stimulate the immune

02:05system.

02:05And what they think might be happening is that this adjuvant, it's not the vaccine, but it's

02:10the adjuvant that goes with it, somehow manipulated the immune system, which is what it was intended

02:15to do anyway for the vaccine, and affected the incidence of dementia, the underlying process

02:20of dementia.

02:21Okay.

02:22So this is over a large number of people.

02:24It's not proof of cause and effect, but it is an interesting finding.

02:28So it doesn't, so there may be a double effect of the shingles vaccine, which is the chemical

02:33that goes with it, as well as the vaccine itself, and other vaccines too.

02:37And it might be a clue to treatments, and it may be even causes.

02:40More research in that area, I'm sure.

02:42As always.

02:43As always.

02:43Also, you've got some more information, Norman, about the coronavirus spreading in bats and

02:49how that all happens.

02:50This is fascinating research from the University of Sydney, looking to see, you know, we're

02:54almost certain that COVID-19 came from bats.

02:58And bats contain a lot of different coronaviruses, and Australian bats contain coronaviruses, not

03:04COVID-19.

03:06And the question is, what is the dynamics of viruses in, what are the dynamics of coronaviruses

03:11in bat populations?

03:13Because the assumption has always been, it comes from older bats, you know, pooing, excreting

03:17the virus, we catch the virus.

03:19And they looked in detail at bat populations in Australia, collecting the poo, comparing

03:24it to poo from individual bats.

03:28And what they found was, the problem was the young bats.

03:31So young bats, after weaning, actually collect a lot of coronavirus, and they're the brewing

03:39pot for coronaviruses, rather than the adults who've got used to it.

03:43So it's like us sending our kids off to kindy, and they're coming home with every virus under

03:48the sun.

03:48It turns out that young bats do the same thing.

03:52So if you're looking for the source of perhaps new coronaviruses, head for the kids.

03:57I'm sure a lot of parents can relate to their kids always coming home with a common cold

04:02when they're at school or daycare.

04:03Finally, Norman, this was interesting.

04:05A study last week got some publicity around where it was better for women to have their

04:10babies, whether it be in the private system or the public system.

04:14It came down with the private system, but there was a little bit beneath that headline,

04:19wasn't there?

04:20A lot beneath that headline.

04:21We tried to get an author, authors from the paper, and we found it very hard to get any

04:25author to speak from this paper, which is unusual.

04:29And we've got commentary, so if people want to hear that, they can go to the health report.

04:33But this was a study which compared private obstetric care with public obstetric care.

04:40But it's a very difficult study to do, 800,000 births.

04:44So what they found was a higher rate of tears, lower rates of what's called the APGAR score,

04:50which is the health of the baby at birth, and tears in the mother.

04:54And they mixed models.

04:58So in other words, there's lots of different models of care in the public sector.

05:01It's not as if there aren't any problems in the public sector, but they mixed models,

05:07and it's very hard to match the two populations.

05:09Women who go for public care are very different from women who go for private care.

05:14And so there are a lot of problems in this study.

05:18And if you're going in the public sector, you just need to be sure that you're getting

05:21coordinated care.

05:23Midwife-led care has been shown to work, and that the same person is following you

05:27through rather than fragmentation, which is what the allegation was in this paper,

05:32was that fragmented care is not good for you if you're in the public sector.

05:36And I'm sure that's true, but not all care in the public sector is fragmented.

05:41So it was apples and oranges comparing here.

05:43All right.

05:44All right.

05:44Yeah.

05:44I'll do this again.

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