Though Novavax and Seqirus are the first collaborative COVID-19 vaccine and influenza vaccine developers, respectively, to present positive findings of co-administration in volunteers, there is anticipation this may become a standard practice in the coming fall and winter seasons.
What exactly COVID-19 and flu vaccine co-administration may look like is not yet well-defined, but experts anticipate it could be a win-win practice.
In the next segment of an interview with Contagion, Dr. Raja Rajaram, Medical Affairs Lead of EMEA at Seqirus, discussed how the trend of flu vaccination as a “behavioral norm” may help improve global COVID-19 immunization efforts.
“Some of the population may be going forward for their flu vaccines, and that is an opportunity to find out if they’ve had their COVID-19 vaccines,” he explained. At the same time, COVID-19 vaccine appointments may be an ideal opportunity to initiate flu vaccination behaviors in patients as well.
Rajaram also discussed the rapidly-expanding respiratory virus assay market, and how the switch from defining flu by test results rather than diagnostic code may help public health awareness efforts.
“What I do hope for after COVID-19 is that (the testing market) expands to include flu and other respiratory viruses, because it will help the public understand what is the disease burden every winter,” he said.
