Is a Combo COVID/Flu Shot on the Way?

During the next few weeks or months, you might find yourself dropping by the doctor’s office or pharmacy to get your annual flu shot along with a dose of COVID vaccine.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to get two individual jabs. Though at least two drug companies are working on a combo flu/COVID booster, the single-dose shot won’t be ready for this flu season.

But rest assured that it’s perfectly safe to get your flu shot and COVID vaccination during the same visit, infectious disease doctors say.

Getting several vaccinations at once has been standard medical practice for decades now, and these combos have never caused any harm, Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the Bethesda, Md.-based National Foundation for Infectious Diseases says.

“It certainly hasn’t inhibited the armed forces,” Schaffner adds. “When you’re a recruit, you get needled. You get a whole bunch of vaccines simultaneously.”

It doesn’t overwhelm your immune system, he shares.

“And the CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has said explicitly you can get your first, second or — if they’re recommended — booster COVID vaccines at the same time that you get your flu shot,” Schaffner notes.

Anticipating that annual COVID boosters will be needed in the future, the pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Novavax both have announced that they are