Several universities have asked State health officials about administering Covid-19 booster vaccines to students on campus simultaneously with the seasonal influenza vaccine to prepare for a possible “twindemic” this winter.
Trinity College Dublin and a number of other universities have made the request for the allocation of flu vaccines in light of Australia experiencing a difficult bad flu season on top of a surge of Covid-19 during the southern hemisphere’s winter over recent months.
Dr David McGrath, director of Trinity’s college health service, said the combination of a flu vaccine and the Covid-19 booster vaccine for younger people could be “a game-changer” this winter if universities could gain access to sufficient quantities of the flu vaccine.
Trinity along with UCC, NUI Galway and NUI Maynooth, wrote to the Health Service Executive about the possibility of giving students Covid-19 vaccines and flu vaccines at the same time this autumn, Dr McGrath told The Irish Times.
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He said Trinity was planning to return to normal face-to-face teaching but giving both vaccines at the same time on campuses would help reduce the spread of Covid-19 and the flu this winter and reduce the risk of having to move to hybrid teaching with some online learning.
“The reality is that in Dublin we will have 100,000 or more third-level students coming into the city. It would be a big advantage to universities if they could vaccinate students on site,” he said.
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This winter’s flu season will likely mirror what happened in Australia during its winter and universities must prepare for it and another possible Covid-19 wave at the same time, he said.
“This autumn the flu vaccine is going to be more important than any autumn up to now because of the presence of Covid as well,” Dr McGrath told The Irish Times.
“All the flu modelling looks like we are going to have our worst flu season for several years, certainly from well before Covid-19. If that aligns with another variant of Covid-19, that could be problematic. That is something we have to prepare for.”
The HSE has opened up second booster doses to people aged 55 and over. The National Immunisation Advisory Committee has recommended that Covid-19 vaccines can be given at the same time as seasonal flu vaccines as health officials prepare for a very significant flu season.
Traditionally watched as a seasonal harbinger for flu season in the northern hemisphere, Australia had to deal with a “twindemic” in recent months the worst flu season in five years — and the first since the Covid-19 pandemic began — and a southern hemisphere winter surge of coronavirus.
Dr McGrath said Trinity’s ability to administer thousands of vaccines to its own students in an on-campus vaccination centre last month resulted in “a much bigger take-up” and made a “huge difference” particularly among international students, some of whom were ineligible for vaccination in their home countries.
