Getting the flu vaccine and COVID shot on the same day doesn’t increase the risk of adverse reactions, according to a review of the medication records of 2.5 million adults who receive medical care across the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system.
The study, published [on June 30, 2026] in the Annals of Internal Medicine, assessed the frequency of 46 adverse reactions of some 1.8 million VA patients who only received the flu shot, and compared that data to the incidence of adverse reactions among more than 705,000 who were vaccinated against both the flu and COVID-19 on the same day. People received this medical care from September 2022 to August 2025, during which time three iterations of the COVID vaccine were available.
Cardiovascular and thrombotic events, neurologic disorders, and immune-mediated disorders were among the adverse reactions that researchers looked for in the 90 days following the immunizations. No individual outcome showed a statistically significant increase in risk.
Finding can inform future vaccine policy
“The findings support the short-term safety of coadministration in older adults and may help inform ongoing vaccine policy discussions and individual risk–benefit assessments,” said the study’s authors, all of whom work at the VA St. Louis Health Care System’s Clinical Epidemiology Center.
The researchers also noted that despite declining fatality rates, COVID-19 continues to cause “substantial morbidity and mortality in the United States.” An estimated 879,000 hospitalizations and 101,000 deaths occurred from October 2023 to September 2024 in the United States.
Share this article
Sarah Boden is an investigative health reporter for CIDRAP. Find Sarah on X @Sarah_Boden
A version of this article was originally posted at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota and is reposted here. Any reposting should credit both the GLP and original article. Find CIDRAP on X @CIDRAP
