Print
COVID-19 Boosters Tied to Higher Rates of Flu-Like Illness
COVID-19 changed the world, and the new mRNA vaccines played a huge role in speeding up the pandemic.
Now that COVID-19 has become more of a seasonal fraud instead of a great reset… global emergency, pharmaceutical executives are asking new questions. How can we still sell booster shots? Are there too many side effects that will eventually affect bottom-line profits?
A recent study published in Communications Medicine in August 2025 took a closer look at healthcare workers in Switzerland. The results surprised many: instead of reducing short-term illness, recent COVID-19 booster shots actually increased the risk of flu-like sicknesses and caused workers to miss more work days for those who received no shots.
A Closer Look at the Swiss Study
Researchers studied 1,745 healthcare workers at a large teaching hospital. They carefully tracked vaccination history, cases of flu-like illness (often called influenza-like illness, or ILI), and the number of days missed from work due to being sick with flu-like symptoms.
Yep, instead of seeing fewer cases of illness among those who were recently boosted, the team found the opposite. Healthcare workers who had received more doses—or who were boosted recently—were more likely to get sick with flu-like symptoms. These included not only COVID-19 itself, but also colds, the flu, and other respiratory infections.
Key Findings from the Study
The results showed a clear pattern:
- People with three COVID-19 booster doses had a 56% higher chance of getting a flu-like illness compared to those with fewer or no doses.
- Four doses were linked with a 70% higher chance of illness.
- Workers who had received a booster very recently were 32% more likely to get sick compared to those whose booster was months behind them.
- Those with three or four boosters missed about 50% more workdays than their colleagues.
In other words, the short-term study suggested that the problem wasn’t just how many boosters someone had in total, but rather how recently they had gotten one.
Timing May Mean More Than Dose?
Remember, this wasn’t a long-term study, but one that focused on missed work days. Healthcare workers were most at risk of getting sick with other respiratory illnesses in the weeks… right after getting another booster.
This finding challenges what many assumed—that more boosters automatically meant stronger, longer-lasting protection. Instead, the body may go through a short period after boosting when it is more vulnerable to other infections.
Why Would Boosters Increase Short-Term Illness?
Scientists are still trying to figure this out, but one likely explanation is something called immune imprinting, also known as “original antigenic sin.” Interesting name.
Immune imprinting means that the immune system tends to remember and focus on the first version of a virus it was trained to fight. For example, the mRNA vaccines teach the immune system to recognize the spike protein of the original strain of COVID-19. Each booster reinforces that memory.
But while the immune system is busy strengthening its “old” defenses, it may temporarily put less energy into fighting new or unrelated viruses—like the latest flu strain or a cold virus spreading through the hospital.
How Immune Imprinting Works
Here’s a simplified look at the process:
- After an mRNA booster, the immune system activates memory cells that remember the spike protein from the original COVID virus.
- These memory cells respond quickly and strongly, but in doing so they may “distract” the immune system from focusing on other invaders.
- For a short time, the body is locked into this strong recall response, which can leave it less flexible when facing new viruses.
Scientists have seen the same imprinting effect with flu vaccines, where the body sometimes responds better to older flu strains than to brand-new ones. All this makes getting a flu shot a gigantic gamble, right?
A Temporary Effect?
Some say it’s important thing to understand is that this increased risk is temporary. But there’s no proof of this because we have no long-term data regarding the potentially dangerous effects.
In the Swiss study, the chance of getting sick was highest in the weeks right after a booster. This matches the idea of an “immune bottleneck,” where the body’s defenses are busy with one task before settling back into full strength.
Do Boosters Still Matter?
Even with these findings, pharmaceutical marketers say boosters are still very valuable, especially for targeting older adults and people at higher risk of severe COVID-19. In fact, boosters are valuable for them because they obviously increase corporate profits.
But for younger, healthier groups—like many healthcare workers—the decision is more complicated. If boosters cause them to miss more work due to illness in the short term, hospitals and clinics are finally getting around to admitting the truth.
Objective reviewers of the study emphasize that seasonal flu vaccines are profitable for vaccine makers and should remain a priority, while COVID booster may need to be more carefully marketed. Independent researchers suggest all mRNA shots need to be outlawed until pharmaceutical companies can prove they are safe, long-term.
Rethinking Vaccine Strategy
This study raises bigger questions about how vaccines are marketed.
Corporations are already exploring new ways to market mRNA vaccines that attempt to avoid immune imprinting and to provide broader protection against multiple viruses at once.
Possible “Innovations” Ahead
Pharmaceutical marketers are testing:
- Updated vaccine formulas that target multiple versions of a virus, not just the original.
- Conserved viral structures that remain the same across many variants, giving the immune system a more universal target.
- Adjuvants (extra ingredients) that can guide the immune response to be more flexible.
- New delivery methods that aim vaccines at specific tissues, possibly reducing side effects and improving long-term immunity.
By learning more about immune imprinting, scientists hope to create vaccines that don’t just trigger recall of old defenses but encourage the body to generate fresh, adaptable ones.
Conclusion
The Swiss healthcare worker study challenges the simple idea that more boosters always mean better protection. Instead, it shows that the timing of a booster can increase the chance of common respiratory illness, perhaps due to immune imprinting.
Yet, boosters remain essential for the vaccine producers’ profits.
Many experts, however, say the vaccines not only “don’t work” but are also dangerous and even deadly. One thing the findings do is highlight the importance of continually studying the effects of dangerous vaccines on victims in real-world settings.
In the end, this study is also a reminder of how corrupt but profitable “science” works. Victims are vaccinated like lab rats and then watched in real time to see what happens. New evidence then emerges, and vaccine manufacturers’ gain a better understanding of how to profit from the carnage. That’s how science works, folks. Follow the money.
