flu and COVID vaccine at the same time (or few days apart)?

[mantana]

Some sources indicate that it's safe to receive a flu and COVID vaccine at the same time - and as a possible downside, cite modest side effects in a small number of people, i.e.:

cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspec...

health.gov.au/initiatives-a...

Is it the same for us with blood cancer? I've never reacted badly to vaccines, so I'm not so worried about headache or muscle pain.

I'm more worried if they will be equally effective if administered together (assuming they will be effective at all for me - I'm almost 5 month after my rituximab treatment - so probably won't produce (m)any antibodies anyway).

I got my COVID booster 3 days ago. Should I receive a flu shoot today/tomorrow, or should I rather wait some more? Or, perhaps, there is no good scientific answer till now - especially that our disease can be so different for each of us.

[zaax]

Locally they are doing both on the same appointment. I felt crappy on Friday then after a 10 hour sleep, good on Saturday

[very in reply to zaax]

My husband,had his at the same time.He had no problems.

Jenny uk

[KMac1969]

I had both at the same time with no issue.

[mutamer in reply to KMac1969]

Same with me...both at the same time....no problem.

[devonrr]

Last year had both at the same time. This year I had the flu jab a week later because of different venues. No problems last year or this. Go for it!

[mantana in reply to devonrr]

Question is not if I will more likely have a headache or muscle pain - but if it's better to space these vaccinations to get better immune system response. But I suppose there is no established scientific answer to that.

Anyway - my flu shot is this Friday, a week after COVID shot!

[devonrr in reply to mantana]

👍

[Eucalyptus22]

I was speaking to my CNS yesterday and she said that some people with the new vaccine are being knocked off their feet for as much as 4 days. She wanted me to be aware. Haven't had mine yet 😱

[CycleWonder]

I had both mine and at the same time - the Moderna and the flu. It was my first time for the Moderna vaccine (the other five were Pfizer).

My lymph nodes swelled up under my left arm and I did not feel well for several days.

[SantaZia]

I had a pretty good reaction to the flu shot so I postponed my COVID booster.

[Edalv]

I plan to spread my vaccines at least two weeks apart. I don’t want any unintended surprises. I usually have a strong reaction to the Covid vax so I don’t want to make it any worse that already will be…

[JigFettler Volunteer]

So - the question everyone is asking!

The main reason you would want to have the vaccinations separately would be to know if you get a serious reaction which one caused it! Quite an important reason I think!

Having them together clearly you would not - and that would be a problem going forward.

The immune system is quite capable of managing more than one viral challenge at a time - so in theory no reason not to combine. Given our immune systems are not normal it would seem not unreasonable to separate the vaccinations by a couple of weeks - perhaps optimising our immune response. Then we are all different and none of us quite knows how effective our immunities are.

Personally I separate them by 2 weeks. Since Chemo I react badly to vaccinations - fever, intense painful myalgia and fatigue for a week after. So I know my immune system is reacting, I can feel the cytokine levels rising, feels like WnW before chemo. What I dont know of course is whether this reaction implies effectively imparted immunity.

Jig