Photo: uniqueton (Shutterstock)
When the COVID shots first came out, the CDC wanted to be cautious. It was a new vaccine, after all, so they recommended waiting two weeks before or after getting any other vaccine, including a flue shot. That guidance has changed. You can now get your flu and COVID shots at the same visit—but maybe not in the same arm.
The CDC recommends using separate arms if you are getting a COVID shot and a high-dose or adjuvanted flu shot. That’s because both types of shots are considered more “reactogenic” than other common vaccines. With either, you might have a sore arm, or experience redness or swelling around the injection site. You also might get a swollen lymph node in the same armpit. If your reaction is severe enough to seek medical care or to make a report to the vaccine adverse event reporting system, it would be really helpful to know which vaccine caused the issue.
That said, you’re not prohibited from getting both shots in the same arm. And most flu shots are not of the high-dose or adjuvanted type anyway. (Those shots are only recommended for people over age 65.) In most cases, it’s fine to get any two shots in the same visit, but double check with your provider because there are a few vaccines that have more specific guidelines. Separating shots by a few weeks is sometimes recommended for the monkeypox vaccine, for example, although if you know you’ve been exposed to monkeypox you should not delay getting the vaccine.
Most of the time, if you’re getting two shots, providers will assume that you would like to get them in separate arms. Anytime my kids have gotten two or more vaccines, the nurses will generally double-team the kid, delivering shots in both arms (or both legs, for babies) at the same time. Anytime I, a grownup, have gone to the pharmacy for more than one shot, they do one in each arm. (This is how I got my travel-related typhoid and hepatitis A shots a few years back.)
Ultimately, the choice of arms and the choice of scheduling are up to you. Your immune system is likely to respond just as well to the shots whether they’re in one arm or two, Katherine Wu reports for the Atlantic. The question is really whether you’d rather have two mildly-sore arms or one potentially super-sore arm. You can also dodge the question entirely by scheduling your flu and COVID shots for different days, which is convenient enough if you’re getting them at a neighborhood pharmacy.
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