There are very few contraindications to the COVID-19 vaccinations.
People with a history of anaphylactic reaction, that’s more than just an ordinary allergy, need to be very careful with the Pfizer vaccine, and that’s why most people are gonna be watched for 15 minutes after they have it. If you’ve got a history of anaphylaxis, then you need to talk to your doctor about it. It’s not entirely clear whether the Astra vaccine has the same risk at this stage.
Obviously at this time of year people are going to need influenza immunisation. It’s very important that you do, and what’s important is that there’s a two-week gap between your influenza vaccine and the COVID. It could be either way, COVID followed by two weeks or influenza followed by two weeks. Those are the main issues with the vaccine, and anything else that you’re worried about, such as autoimmune disease or whether you’re immunocompromised, they need to be talked about with your doctor, but in fact, if you’re immunocompromised, say through chemotherapy or something like that, then it’s probably even more important that you’re immunised but these are things to talk through with your doctor.
There are very few contraindications to these vaccines.
Dr Norman Swan, Physician and Journalist