Sept. 11, 2023 -- Israeli researchers say getting the COVID-19 vaccine at the same time as the flu vaccine offers almost the same protection as getting the COVID vaccine alone.
People who received both shots had only a slightly lower antibody response than people who received just the COVID vaccine, says the study published in JAMA Network Open. Additionally, people who got both shots reported almost the same number of adverse reactions as people who got only the COVID vaccine.
Getting both shots at the same time “was not associated with substantially inferior immune response or to more frequent adverse events compared with COVID-19 vaccine administration alone, supporting the coadministration of these vaccines,” the researchers concluded.
Health care workers at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel received Abbott's four-strain influenza vaccine, the bivalent COVID-19 booster from Pfizer/BioNTech, or both vaccines from September 2022 to January 2023. Participants who got both vaccines received one in each arm.
Researchers collected blood samples of antibody testing and online questionnaires from participants for up to 62 days after vaccination.
COVID-fighting antibodies were measured as being only .84 times lower in people who got both shots than people who got the COVID shot only, the study said. None of the study participants got COVID in the two months after getting the vaccines.
The incidence of self-reported reactions — such as fever or fatigue — was 27.4% in people who only got the COVID vaccine, 27.6% in people who got both shots, and 12.7% for people who only got the flu vaccine.
Researchers concluded that it’s an “acceptable policy” to encourage both shots at the same time because “adherence to a single clinic visit will surely be greater than that which can be achieved for 2 separate visits, especially in more vulnerable populations” like the elderly.
People in the United States may soon need to decide whether to get both shots at the same time. The FDA authorized the newest COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, meaning it may be available this week to the public.
According to the CDC, getting both at the same time is acceptable, though one study found that reactions increased by about 8% to 11% when both were given at the same time.
