Health authorities encourage elderly people to receive influenza and COVID-19 vaccines simultaneously.
Dr Tawee Chotpitayasunondh, president of the Influenza Foundation, said that influenza and COVID-19 vaccines could be administered on the same day. Recipients would not need an interval between both vaccinations but inoculation would be done on different shoulders, he said.
The concurrent vaccinations rarely led to side effects and flu vaccines had been produced and administered for over 80 years, he said.
Flu vaccination was available free of charge for vulnerable people including elderly people aged 60 years and over, people with underlying illnesses, pregnant women and young children. The vaccination could either prevent or limit illness like COVID-19 vaccines, Dr Tawee said.
Dr Tawee was speaking during a discussion on influenza and COVID-19 situations. In the event, he and Prof Dr Teerapong Tantawichian of the Faculty of Medicine at Chulalongkorn University said that influenza and COVID-19 would co-exist with humans for good.
They pointed out that the COVID-19 situation improved because people wore face masks and received vaccines. If people stopped using face masks, the situation would be worse because 70-80% of infected people were asymptomatic.
According to them, the simultaneous infection of COVID-19 and influenza caused severer symptoms including lung inflammation. Officials have found that 10% of COVID-19 cases were also infected with other viruses and 3% contracted influenza.
The reception of both COVID-19 and flu vaccines are a good solution for disease prevention. (TNA)
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