Giving COVID Vaccine Along With Flu Vaccine Says Safe And Effective

One of the problems that generated the most doubts in the population when the COVID-19 vaccination started was what to do by people who are also in the flu risk group and who are used to getting the flu shot every year.

Indeed, at the start of the flu vaccination campaign in the country, the Under-Secretary for Health Strategies, Juan Manuel Castelli, explained to Infobae What “With the evidence available at the time, the interval between the COVID-19 vaccine and any other vaccine should be at least 14 days. to be able to monitor during the first two weeks the possible effects that it could produce, with the application of one or the other of the two vaccines ”.

This is because there were no overall results on the co-administration of vaccines against COVID-19 and those aimed at preventing other diseases, so the interval was recommended not only for vaccination against influenza but for all other vaccines that are part of the immunization schedules.

Now, a study funded by the American biotechnology company Novavax demonstrated “the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy profile of a COVID-19 vaccine when co-administered with seasonal influenza vaccines”.

“This is the first study to show it and results suggest that concomitant vaccination may be a viable immunization strategyHighlight the researchers in the preliminary article subject to review to be published in the journal The Lancet.

Overall, Novavax’s NVX-CoV2373 vaccine shows 89.8% efficacy in an ongoing phase III placebo-controlled study. When the researchers gave a smaller group of 431 volunteers in the same study a flu shot at the same time, the effectiveness dropped slightly to 87.5%.

“These results demonstrate the promising desirability of concomitant vaccination, which can lead to higher vaccination rates and better protection against both viruses.” Study co-author Raja Rajaram, MD, medical affairs manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Seqirus, the company that provided the influenza vaccines for the research, said at Medscape.

Traditionally, how a new vaccine might interact with existing vaccines has been studied before the product is released for use. However, This was not the case with the COVID-19 vaccines available through an accelerated emergency use authorization.

In mid-May, Novavax announced data from a preclinical study of the combination of its vaccine against quadrivalent seasonal influenza (NanoFlu) and its COVID-19 vaccine candidate (NVX-CoV2373).

According to the American company, “The combined NanoFlu / NVX-CoV2373 vaccine demonstrated positive immune responses against both influenza and SARS-CoV-2”, they reported.

The manuscript, titled “Combined Respiratory Vaccine Containing Peak Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 and Quadrivalent Seasonal Hemagglutinin Nanoparticles with Matrix-M Adjuvant,” investigated a combination vaccine comprising a formulation of quadrivalent influenza nanoparticles formulated with a peak of recombinant SARS-CoV-2. Matrix-M protein and adjuvant vaccine.

According to the researchers, “The combination vaccine elicited robust responses to both influenza A and B and protected against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.” Clinical trials of the combination vaccine are expected to begin later this year.

This is because, in the opinion of experts, despite the low rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, influenza remains a significant risk to global public health and the need for versatile and more effective vaccines is greater than ever.

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