Health workers urged to get flu vaccine now to avoid risk to 'interaction with Covid-19 vaccine

Blackburn with Darwen CCG have asked frontline workers to get the flu jab before December as vaccine trials are showing positive results worldwide.

Two of the leading vaccine trials have shown at least their vaccine to be at least 90% effective, lifting hopes that the vaccine could begin being administered before Christmas.

On Facebook, a spokesperson for NHS Blackburn with Darwen CCG said: "We are urging all frontline healthcare workers to take up the offer of a free flu vaccination before the start of December 2020.

"This will enable us to be in a better position to vaccinate healthcare workers for COVID should a vaccine become available, without risk of interaction between vaccines."

The NHS is preparing to start administering a Covid-19 vaccine before the end of the year, should one be approved by regulators.

US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, working with German biotech company BioNTech, has released preliminary findings that suggest their vaccine is more than 90% effective in preventing Covid-19.

The vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries and no safety concerns have been raised.

Pfizer is now planning to apply to the US regulator the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency approval to use the vaccine by the end of the month.

A survey of 1,000 Britons suggests the proportion who said they would “definitely” take up an offer of a vaccine against coronavirus has dipped since the summer.

The survey conducted by Kantar this month found that 43% of adults said they would definitely have a vaccine – a fall from 50% when the same question was asked in June.

A further 32% in the latest poll said they would probably get vaccinated.

Overall three-quarters (75%) indicated they would be likely to get a Covid-19 vaccine – a dip from 78% in the summer.

Another 11% said they would “probably not” get a vaccination to protect against Covid-19 and 8% said they would “definitely not”.