Most People might be eligible for each the brand new monovalent Covid vaccine and the annual flu shot this fall. You can schedule your vaccines individually or select to get them on the identical time. In line with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, it is safe to get each the Covid vaccine and flu shot collectively.
Combining vaccines, normally, will not be uncommon: Kids usually obtain a number of photographs directly, stated Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious illness specialist on the College of California, San Francisco. Implementing the identical technique amongst adults may also help extra individuals stand up up to now on all their photographs with out having to make a number of visits to a health care provider or pharmacy. “Comfort trumps every thing,” he stated.
The downsides are fairly small: Analysis reveals that individuals are solely barely extra more likely to expertise unwanted side effects like ache on the injection web site, complications, fatigue or fever in the event that they go for each photographs directly. In a single study printed final week, researchers in Israel discovered that the incidence of unwanted side effects in individuals who simply received the flu shot was 12.7 %. Amongst those that solely acquired the Covid bivalent booster final yr, 27.4 % skilled unwanted side effects, and of the individuals who acquired each vaccines, 27.6 % skilled unwanted side effects. In different phrases, you should not fear an excessive amount of about feeling additional sore or sick in case you get each vaccines collectively.
You might contemplate getting one shot in every arm if you wish to keep away from the discomfort of two needle pricks in the identical arm.“It’s private desire — there’s no medical cause to do it a method or one other,” stated Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious illness specialist at N.Y.U. Langone.
One other concern is whether or not getting the Covid vaccine and the flu shot on the identical time will negatively have an effect on the physique’s immune response to 1 or each vaccines. The identical current examine supplies reassurance there, too. Whereas researchers did discover that antibody ranges in opposition to the coronavirus had been 16 % decrease in individuals who received each vaccines in comparison with those that solely received the Covid booster, these ranges weren’t “considerably inferior” given the margin of error within the examine’s pattern measurement. And when the researchers adopted up with members 60 days after their vaccinations, none had gotten Covid-19.
Some consultants consider that spreading out your photographs would possibly make sense in case you can time them to simply earlier than every virus peaks. So when you might get the Covid vaccine this month, as circumstances rise in components of the US, you can contemplate ready till later within the fall to get the flu shot. Flu circumstances usually peak between December and February; you may monitor flu exercise in your state by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s influenza surveillance studies for extra detailed data. A health care provider may assist you resolve the very best technique, particularly in case you have a excessive threat of extreme illness or are immunocompromised.
