‘Peterburgskii Dnevnik’ newspaper: Professor Alexey Yakovlev: ‘Vaccines against influenza and COVID-19 will not be antagonists’

‘First of all, we must vaccinate people against COVID-19. At least for today, I see no reason for an increase in the incidence of influenza, but another rise in COVID-19 is quite possible because people return from vacations, from other cities, come from their summer houses. But if you want to be safe, you can get vaccinated against the flu one month after vaccination against coronavirus infection, or get vaccinated against the flu at the same time as the first injection,’ Alexey Yakovlev said to the ‘Peterburgskii Dnevnik’ newspaper.

According to Doctor Yakovlev, there is nothing new or dangerous in the simultaneous vaccination against influenza and coronavirus.

‘Multivalent vaccines are well known in medicine, so the question of whether it is possible to simultaneously administer vaccines against several diseases is not supernatural. The question here is how necessary it is. At the very beginning of the pandemic, in its first rise, I was vaccinated against the flu, suggesting that there will be a rise. But life has shown that this did not happen. It became clear that these viruses are in antagonistic relations with each other.  In my opinion, the likelihood that this time the flu will squeeze out the coronavirus is small. Although, I repeat: there will be nothing wrong with vaccination against both influenza and COVID-19 for the body,’ said Professor Yakovlev.

Doctor Yakovlev also noted that the vaccinated might also get sick, but the likelihood of a severe course of the disease in those vaccinated or in those who have already been ill is incomparably lower than for those who are not vaccinated and have never had COVID-19.