Good Question: Can I get the flu and COVID vaccines at the same time?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC)— Let’s tackle two things here: Flu shots and COVID vaccines.

A viewer reached out saying: "Will we need to get a flu shot this year or will the COVID booster be enough?"

News10NBC’s Brennan Somers spoke to Melissa Bronstein, the Senior Director of Infection Prevention at Rochester Regional Health.

"Vaccinations are very specific to the virus and the covid virus is different than the flu virus, so yes I would say it’s even more important to get the flu shot this year along with your COVID vaccination than it was last year," Bronstein said. "Why? There are still some places where we’re not masking consistently people are tired of doing all the things that will keep us safe from flu and COVID."

Here’s the second part of that question: "Since we should get both– the flu and COVID vaccine, and soon COVID boosters, can I get them at the same time?"

Well, when we first got the COVID vaccines, the CDC told everyone to take them alone, spaced two weeks apart from other vaccines. That was just a precaution as the CDC later did away with that recommendation.

"We gathered more information we knew that we could combine vaccines safely and still get good benefits from the COVID vaccine as well as another vaccination and I would suspect that would be true for the boosters," Bronstein said.

So there are your answers.

Be sure to speak with your doctor or pharmacist ahead of time if you have any other questions specifically about your situation. For example, people with certain health conditions, they may give you the flu and COVID shots at the same time– but in different arms.

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