Double influenza-Covid-19 vaccination is possible and even recommended for people at risk of serious forms. When to take both vaccines? The same day ? Or ? Guide.
In 2023for the first timethe Ministry of Health launched a double campaign Covid+Flu vaccination. Double vaccination was already possible at the end of 2022 but not offered together. “This year, the voucher for flu vaccination is accompanied by an invitation to also be vaccinated against Covid-19” explains the ministry in a communicated from December 13. So How’s it going.
Who should be double vaccinated?
Vaccinations against influenza and Covid-19 are strongly recommended for people at risk of developing a serious form of these diseases:
- All people aged 65 and over;
- People over 6 months old with comorbidities (complicated blood pressure, heart, vascular, liver, kidney, lung problems, diabetes, obesity, cancers, transplant recipients, people with Down syndrome or psychiatric disorders or dementia);
- Immunocompromised people;
- Pregnant women ;
- People living in close proximity to or in regular contact with immunocompromised or vulnerable people, including professionals in the health and medico-social sectors;
- Residents in accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (EHPAD) and long-term care units (USLD).
Arm, deadline: how does it work?
THE two injections (flu and Covid-19) can be performed on the same day, on two separate injection sites, the two arms for example but not in the same arm. If the two vaccines are not administered at the same time, there is no no deadline to respect between the two vaccinations. Both vaccines are delivered free of charge in pharmacies upon presentation of the care voucher. For peopleeligible people who have not received a support vouchera voucher can be issued to them by their doctoror their midwifewhatever the age (children and adults) or also, by their pharmacist or nurse for people aged 11 and over. Pharmacists and nurses cannot vaccinate people under 11 years old.
► You can be vaccinated at your doctor, in a pharmacy, in a nurse’s office, in a midwife’s office or in the hospital departments in which you are being treated.
► Make an appointment online on appointment booking platforms or directly contact the healthcare professional (doctor, pharmacist, etc.) with whom you wish to be vaccinated, in specifying that it is a vaccination against Covid-19 and the flu.
Isn’t it risky to receive two vaccines at the same time?
According to High Authority of HealthNo : “There is no danger in the co-administration of influenza and Covid-19 vaccines.” An opinion shared by the General Directorate of Health which recalls that “long-term experience with vaccination shows that the co-administration of several vaccines is not not dangerous for the immune system“. The production of these two vaccines can thus be “concomitant” in order to avoid any additional delay in the administration of one or other of these injections. According to English test data ComFluCOVrelayed by the HAS, the co-administration of vaccines against influenza and COVID-19 is generally well tolerated without a decrease in vaccine-induced immune responses to either vaccine.