Immune Response Not Inferior With Coadministration of COVID-19, Flu Shots

THURSDAY, Sept. 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- The immune response and occurrence of adverse events were similar for health care workers receiving coadministration of COVID-19 and influenza vaccines or COVID-19 vaccine alone, according to a study published online Sept. 8 in JAMA Network Open.

Tal Gonen, M.D., from Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, and colleagues compared the reactogenicity and immunogenicity of COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations administered together to those of COVID-19 vaccination alone in a prospective cohort study involving participants who received the Influvac Tetra (Abbott) influenza vaccine (2022/2023), the omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent (Pfizer/BioNTech) vaccine, or both. Two cohorts were included for two analyses: The reactogenicity analysis included 588 participants (85 in the COVID-19 vaccine-alone group; 357 in the influenza vaccine-alone group; and 146 in the coadministration group), and the immunogenicity analysis included 151 participants (74 in the COVID-19 vaccine group and 77 in the coadministration group).

The researchers found that the risk for systemic symptoms was similar in the coadministration group compared with the COVID-19 vaccination-alone group (odds ratio, 0.82; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.43 to 1.56). In the coadministration group, geometric mean titers were estimated to be 0.84 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.69 to 1.04) times lower than in the COVID-19 vaccine-alone group.

"We believe that our results suggest that the coadministration of this COVID-19 vaccine along with seasonal influenza vaccination is a feasible and harmless tactic to increase vaccine uptake," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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