Co-administration of COVID-19 and flu vaccine fine in autoimmune population

New research confirms that people with autoimmune disease who receive the influenza vaccine and a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine at the same time have no increased risk of adverse health events compared to getting the vaccines separately.“In patients with autoimmune disease, mRNA COVID-19 vaccine increases mild to moderate health events compared to the influenza vaccine. But these events are similar if we provide the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine alone or with combination with the influenza vaccine, indicating that there is no additional risk with co-administration,” said Phyumar Soe, a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, who presented the data at the Canadian Immunization Conference.This finding could change the immunization strategies for this population, Soe said.Soe compared 1,286 people with autoimmune disease who did not get a vaccine within three months of the study period, and 5,220 people with autoimmune disease who received either the influenza vaccine or the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine or both between September and December 2022. The data comes from a Canadian National Vaccine Safety Network (CANVAS) study and included people over the age of 15 and parents of younger children. Of the vaccinated group, 9.4% had the influenza vaccine, 57.2% had the COVID-19 vaccine, and 33.4% had both. The autoimmune diseases represented in the study included celiac or inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, dermatitis or psoriasis, multiple sclerosis and other conditions. There was no significant difference in the relative risk of a health event in those who had the influenza and COVID-19 vaccine co-administered compared to those who had people who had the COVID-19 vaccine alone. There were more adverse health events reported by people who had the COVID-19 vaccine compared to people who had the influenza vaccine. The most common adverse event was local swelling at the injection site. This was reported by 40.1% of people who had the influenza vaccine, 63.3 % who had the COVID-19 vaccine, but only 58.8% who had the vaccines co-administered. The number of other health events was low, and those that experienced health events had symptoms within two to three days of immunization.Five people reported having exacerbations of their autoimmune disease after immunization.Two cases were after a COVID-19 vaccine and three were after co-administration of the COVID-19 and influenza vaccines. While the patients needed to go see their doctors, none went to the emergency department or required hospitalization. The flare-ups occurred in patients with MS, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylosis (two cases).More information about immunizing people with autoimmune conditions is in the Canadian Immunization Guide.Soe’s supervisor is Dr. Julie Bettinger, the lead investigator of CANVAS and an associate professor at the Vaccine Evaluation Center in the department of pediatrics at the University of British Columbia.Soe presented her research at the Canadian Immunization Conference, held in Ottawa in late November. Read: NACI releases statement on seasonal influenza vaccine for 2024–25

Co-administration of COVID-19 and flu vaccine fine in autoimmune population

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