Kevin Kunzmann is the managing editor for 

. Prior to joining parent company MJH Life Sciences in 2017, he worked as a health care and government reporter for The Pocono Record, and as a freelance writer for NJ Advance Media, The Express-Times, The Daily Journal, and more. He graduated from Rowan University with a degree in journalism in 2015. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, cooking, running his dog, and complaining about the Mets. Follow him on Twitter 

Though Novavax and Seqirus are the first collaborative 

 vaccine developers, respectively, to present 

 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 

, 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.

The Benefit of COVID-19 & Flu Vaccine Co-Administration