More volunteers needed to help vaccine trial

More volunteers are needed in Bath for a Covid vaccine and flu jab trial which began at the Royal United Hospitals on Monday.

Those who have had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, but not their second, are encouraged to take part. Participants must be aged 18 or over, and people over 65 are particularly wanted.

The scheme, part of the first trial in Britain, will determine whether booster jabs for Covid could be given at the same time as the annual flu vaccine.

Bath researchers will join teams already working on the trial, since March 29, in Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and Cornwall. A total of 504 volunteers are needed for the study, which will be one of Britain’s main ways to study if there are any issues with administering the Covid jab alongside the flu jab. Scientists and health chiefs have already indicated a third Covid vaccine might have to follow in the winter, like the flu jab, as the UK gets used to living with Covid-19.

The study will look at side effects and immune response given when people receive their Covid-19 booster and flu vaccine at the same time, a spokesperson from the University of Bristol, which is leading the study, explained