Combo COVID-19-Flu Shot Could Have Broad Appeal
Bouvé/ChE University Distinguished Professor Mansoor Amiji says the convenience of a combined mRNA COVID-19 and flu shot, which successfully completed a late-stage trial at Moderna, could drive up the percentage of people vaccinated against the coronavirus.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cynthia McCormick Hibbert. Main photo: Moderna announces successful late trial of two-in-one mRNA shot for COVID-19 and flu. Photo Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
Will people sign up for Moderna’s combo COVID-19-flu shot? Convenience may increase vaccinations, experts say
As of last month, more than twice as many adults in the U.S. had been vaccinated against the seasonal flu than had received the updated COVID-19 vaccine, even though COVID hospitalization rates were higher than those for influenza.
But with Moderna announcing the success of its combined mRNA COVID-19 and flu shot in a late stage trial, company executives said they hope to see an increase in the number of people adhering to vaccination recommendations.
“A combination vaccine that could provide dual protection in a single shot has the potential to encourage more widespread vaccination uptake while also reducing the burden of acute respiratory disease on health systems,” Francesca Ceddia, Moderna’s chief medical affairs officer, said in a June 10 blog post.
She said that uptake of the 2023/2024 flu vaccine was 48.4% and 22.4% for the updated COVID-19 vaccine for people over the age of 18. She pointed to CDC statistics that showed the only time in the past seven months hospitalizations for flu were higher than for COVID-19 was a couple of weeks in late December and early January.
The convenience of the two-for-one shot could drive up the percentage of people vaccinated against the coronavirus, says Mansoor Amiji, Northeastern University distinguished professor of pharmaceutical sciences and chemical engineering.
But he says it also has the potential of decreasing flu vaccinations among people who harbor politically tinged fear of the COVID-19 vaccine and the mRNA technology used to create it and the Moderna combination vaccine.
“The jury is out to some degree because on one hand there is an advantage because compliance-wise you only have to get one shot instead of two,” Amiji says.
That development can appeal to people who are afraid of needles as well as those pressed for time, he says.
“People could get one shot and be protected from both of these infections,” Amiji says.
But some people may say, “‘I don’t want to get a COVID vaccine, so I’m not going to get the flu shot either,’” he says.
The politically charged nature of beliefs about the COVID-19 vaccine, which is based on mRNA technology, means “you could deter people from getting either one of the two when you combine them together.”
Read full story at Northeastern Global News