It IS safe to get Covid and flu vaccines at the same time: Scientists say people given two jabs in one-go still produce a strong immune response
- Study of 700 Britons revealed giving both injections in one visit was safe
- Jabs still produced strong immune response and only caused mild side effects
- Ministers already said millions of Brits can get the flu and Covid jab at same time
It is safe to get the Covid and flu vaccines in each arm at the same time, a study has found.
Research of 700 Britons revealed giving both injections in one visit raised no safety concerns and still produced a strong immune response.
Half of the volunteers were given both injections at the same time, while the others were given the doses separately three weeks apart.
Co-administering the vaccines at the same time only caused ‘mild to moderate’ side effects, researchers said.
Ministers have already said millions of Britons can get the flu jab at the same time as their Covid booster.
More than 32million people are eligible for a third dose in the coming months — but only six months after their second.
The NHS says most people who can get a booster are also eligible for the annual flu vaccine.
Getting two or more jabs at once is already fairly standard practice throughout the NHS, especially in babies and people travelling to certain destinations.
And people in their 70s are eligible for a one-off shingles vaccine, given alongside the flu jab.
But experts have to test new combinations of vaccines, in case they become less effective when given together or severe side effects.
Research of 700 Britons revealed giving both injections in one visit raised no safety concerns and still produced a strong immune response
The ComFluCOV study aimed to determine whether it was safe to give both jabs at once and whether there were any side effects.
Between April and June, they gave second Covid jabs and one of three flu vaccines to 679 adults from 10 NHS sites across England and Wales who had already received their first dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca.
The first group of 340 people received their second Covid dose and flu jab at the same time.
Three weeks later, they were given a saline placebo injection.
The remaining 339 participants were given their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine and a saline injection at their first visit and a flu jab at their second visit.
The researchers, led by a team at the University of Bristol, monitored the patients for six weeks.
The results were published as a pre-print, meaning they have yet to be scrutinised by fellow scientists.
People may have their flu and booster jabs on the same day if their GP surgery, clinic or pharmacy has sufficient supply of both, or may still have them on separate days if both injections are not available.
‘Apart from the convenience (and the cost to the NHS/providers), there is no medical or immunological reason to go out of your way to get the vaccines at the same time,’ the researchers said.
Dr Peter English, former chair of the BMA Public Health Medicine Committee who was not involved in the study, said the logistics of vaccination a large number of people against the flu and Covid would be ‘greatly simplified’ if the jabs are given simultaneously.
This is because co-administration is ‘much simpler, more convenient for the patient and cheaper for healthcare providers’, he noted.
Dr English said: ‘I cannot think of any examples where co-administration of vaccines is in any way unsafe (compared to administering them separately); and it is extremely unusual for co-administration to interfere with vaccine effectiveness.
‘We would not expect any problems to arise from co administration of flu and Covid vaccines.
‘But it is wise and precautionary to check for possible problems in clinical trials before authorising or recommending widespread co-administration. This study does just that.’
However, he noted that getting both jabs at once might not be as necessary as previously thought.
A large proportion of the population is already double-jabbed and ‘by the time we gear up to being able to co-administer the two vaccines, it is not clear that we will need to vaccinate any more people against Covid’, Dr English said.
But this might change in the future if further doses of Covid vaccines – boosters of current vaccines or newer vaccines tailored to prevent variants – are found to be beneficial, he said.
If this is the case, then co-administration ‘might be very valuable’, he added.