COVID-19 surge in Europe prompts experts to reconsider booster shots
Global News
Many EU countries have already begun giving COVID-19 booster doses to their populations but are using different intervals between the first shots and boosters.
Coronavirus infections broke records in parts of Europe on Wednesday, with the continent once again the epicentre of a pandemic that has prompted new curbs on movement and made health experts thinkagain about booster vaccination shots.
Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Hungary all reported new highs in daily infections as winter grips Europe and people gather indoors in the run-up to Christmas, providing a perfect breeding ground for COVID-19. The disease has swept the world in the two years since it was first identified in central China, infecting more than 258 million people and killing 5.4 million.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the EU public health agency, recommended vaccine boosters for all adults, with priority for those over 40, in a major shift from its previous guidance which suggested the extra doses should be considered for older frail people and those with weakened immune systems.
“Available evidence emerging from Israel and the UK shows a significant increase in protection against infection and severe disease following a booster dose in all age groups in the short term,” the ECDC said in a report published on Wednesday.
Many EU countries have already begun giving booster doses to their populations but are using different criteria to make priorities and different intervals between the first shots and boosters. ECDC head Andrea Ammon said boosters would increase protection against infection caused by waning immunity and “could potentially reduce the transmission in the population and prevent additional hospitalisations and deaths”.
She advised countries with low levels of vaccination to speed up their rollouts and warned of high risks of a further spike in deaths and hospitalisations in Europe in December and January if the recommended measures are not introduced.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, acknowledging that Europe was again at the epicentre of the pandemic, warned against a “false sense of security” over the protection offered by vaccines.
“No country is out of the woods,” he told reporters, adding that he hoped a consensus can be found at a World Trade Organization ministerial meeting next week for an IP waiver for pandemic vaccines, already supported by more than 100 countries.