Now you can give yourself or your children a flu shot with a nasal spray. On Sept. 20, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first vaccine that adults can administer to themselves or a caregiver to someone else. The same nasal spray, FluMist, has been approved since 2003 but previously had to be administered by a pharmacist or other health care professional.
Read what you need to know about the new nasal spray flu vaccine.
What is FluMist?
Nasal spray vaccines have been around for 20 years and were originally approved for administration by pharmacists or health care professionals to people ages 5 to 49. In 2007, approval was expanded to allow for administration to children as young as 2. FluMist comes in a single-dose sprayer, with half a dose sprayed into each nostril.
FluMist is administered as a nasal spray instead of an injection, and it also differs from the flu shot in that it contains a live attenuated flu virus — that is, a virus that has been weakened but not killed. In contrast, the flu shot contains an inactivated or killed virus. However, the nasal spray vaccine does not cause flu illness. According to the FluMist package insert, the flu spray is about as effective as the shot: 45% versus 40% to 60% for the shot.
When can I get the FluMist vaccine at home?
Self-administered versions of the flu vaccine have been in development for a long time. But you’ll have to wait a little longer before you can order one yourself. The FDA says it should be widely available by the next flu season (starting in 2025). But for those who want the nasal spray vaccine for themselves or their children, it’s already available at many pharmacies and clinics. You just can’t take it at home. Instead, a pharmacist or health care professional will administer the vaccine.
Yahoo Life reached out to AstraZeneca, the manufacturer of FluMist, to ask when the product would be available for home use but had not received a response as of press time. But the most likely reason FluMist isn’t available yet is because data needs to be collected on how effectively people vaccinate themselves and their children, Dr. Davey Smith, chair of the School of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, told Yahoo Life.
Who should use it?
FluMist is approved for everyone between the ages of 2 and 49. “We’re really hopeful that this will allow more people to get vaccinated, including children and people who don’t like needles (FluMist is approved for home use),” Smith said. “There are a lot of obstacles in our health care system anyway, so this is hopefully one less obstacle.”
However, you will need to meet eligibility requirements. Neither the FDA, FluMist, nor AstraZeneca have explicitly stated what these criteria are. But Smith says the questionnaire will likely ask about your age to ensure you are not under 2 or over 49, and that you are not taking any medications that may interact with the vaccine. For example, people between 2 and 17 years old who take aspirin should not get FluMist or any other live attenuated vaccine, as this combination has been found to increase the risk of a rare but serious disease called Reye’s syndrome. Pregnant women also should not get the intranasal vaccine, as it may pose a risk to their unborn baby. However, it is important to note that the flu shot by injection is safe and recommended for pregnant women.
The FDA also says that people with weakened immune systems or certain allergies should not get FluMist or other attenuated live-virus vaccines. It’s also not approved for use in people over 50. Smith explains why: Injectable flu vaccines activate a whole-body immune response, whereas FluMist is more localized. And because the immune system weakens with age, FluMist may not provoke the same strong response to an injection in older people.
Are live attenuated virus vaccines safe for most people?
Experts say yes: The weakened but live virus in the nasal spray “is adapted to cold, so it grows in the nose, where it’s colder than body temperature,” Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, tells Yahoo Life, “but it doesn’t grow in the lungs where it can cause infection.”
According to the FDA, side effects of FluMist are similar to those associated with vaccinations and may include runny or stuffy nose, fever in children ages 2 to 6, and sore throat in adults.
How do I take FluMist myself?
Smith said the method is not that different from using Flonaz, an allergy nasal spray: you put the flu spray in one nostril, press the plunger to administer the vaccine, then repeat with the other nostril. Smith said he has no concerns about whether people will be able to administer the flu nasal spray to themselves or their children. “With Flonaz, it’s going to be a lot more… easy, that’s the point,” he said. In AstraZeneca’s clinical trials, 100% of adults were able to administer the full dose to themselves.
The ease of administering the nasal spray vaccine is good news not just for children and those who are afraid of needles, Offit said, but for public health. The availability of FluMist for at-home use “should increase the number of people getting the flu vaccine,” he said. “There’s no reason why you can’t administer the vaccine through the nasal passages without the assistance of a health care professional, and I think that will lead to improved vaccination rates.”
But Offit said he hopes there will be more data on how effectively parents and guardians are administering the spray to their children. Still, Offit said, “I think this can only have an effect on improving vaccination rates,” which have fallen since the COVID-19 pandemic began and were at 50% as of last year.
