You may have been too young to remember, but depending on your state’s school immunization requirements, you likely received a slew of vaccines before you started day care, preschool, or kindergarten. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends 4- to 6-year-olds receive, among others, their fourth dose of the polio vaccine; their second dose of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine; and fifth dose of the diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine.
Chances are you also received the above immunizations and more in a single visit to your pediatrician. Getting multiple vaccines at once is not only safe, according to the CDC, but also just as effective as getting them individually. Now that you’re an adult entering yet another respiratory virus season, there’s no reason you can’t get your COVID and flu—and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), if you’re 60 or older—shots in one go.
That said, you’re not alone if you have reservations about vaccine co-administration. Most U.S. adults 18 and older (61%) wouldn’t or are unsure if they’d get their COVID and flu vaccines together, according to a survey conducted in August by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID). Fewer than two in five adults (39%) said they’d get both jabs together. Among adults 65 and older, half (50%) planned to get both vaccines at once, up from 41% last year.
The following are reasons people cited for not wanting their COVID and flu shots in one sitting:
- Concerns about side effects: 56%
- Don’t think it’s safe to get both vaccines at the same time: 39%
- Doctor hasn’t recommended it: 15%
- Don’t think the vaccines will work well if received at the same time: 13%
Doctors: Consider convenience of COVID, flu shots together
While getting these and other vaccines together or separately is strictly a matter of personal preference, there are advantages to grouping them, says Dr. Donald Dumford, an infectious disease specialist at Cleveland Clinic Akron General. For starters, you could save yourself multiple trips to your doctor or pharmacy, which may be especially convenient if you lack reliable transportation or have to take time off work for your immunizations.
“It’s completely safe to get your COVID and flu [shots] at the same time. If you’re eligible for RSV, it’s totally safe to get the RSV [shot] at the same time,” Dumford tells Fortune. Plus, “you get all those mild side effects out of the way all at once.”
Any vaccine can cause side effects, the CDC says, which are typically mild, such as a sore arm or a low-grade fever, and subside within a few days. The notion that vaccines themselves make you ill is a myth; any side effects you may feel is your body mounting an immune response.
What’s more, there’s no indication in the existing literature that getting multiple vaccines at once worsens those effects, Dumford says. Still, you know your body, and if you’ve had unpleasant vaccine side effects in the past, you may opt for spreading out your immunizations.
“There’s no good way of predicting whether you’re going to have more or less reactivity when you get two vaccines as opposed to one, whereas we know there’s [no] downside to doing both at the same time,” NFID medical director Dr. Robert Hopkins Jr. tells Fortune. “I still encourage everyone, if you have a fever or you have an achy arm, to take an over-the-counter analgesic (pain reliever) to try to control those symptoms.”
How you choose to spread out your vaccinations or not “boils down to practicality,” Hopkins says, suggesting you weigh how likely you are to return for your other vaccine(s) against your response to previous vaccines. “If there’s any concern about not getting back, let’s go ahead and get them both done.”
So long as you keep your COVID, flu, and RSV immunizations up to date, it doesn’t matter whether you get them together or not, the CDC says.
Who should not get multiple vaccines at once?
Most people can get most routine vaccines in combination, according to the Cleveland Clinic. But it’s always best to first consult your health care provider—particularly if you’re 65 or older and/or have health conditions such as HIV or certain spleen issues that impact your immune system.
Some vaccines, such as those for MMR and varicella (chicken pox), contain a weakened form of a live virus, which triggers a stronger immune response. For this reason, the Cleveland Clinic advises against getting more than two live vaccines in one sitting.
Lastly, people planning to travel outside the U.S. may be required to get certain vaccines that can’t be given at the same time, such as those for cholera and typhoid fever.
For more on vaccines:
- Public health experts are warning of a ‘quad-demic’ this winter. Here’s where flu, COVID, RSV, and norovirus are spreading
- RSV can be deadly, especially for older adults. What to know about symptoms and the new vaccine
- COVID sickens older adults most severely, but less than half say they’ll get the new vaccine
- New COVID vaccines are here. What to know about latest shots in wake of nation’s biggest summer surge
- Older adults should get their flu shots now. Here’s why they also need stronger vaccines
