EMA wants to administer booster jabs three months after the second dose

EMA wants to administer booster jabs three months after the second dose

This Thursday, December 9, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) indicated that it would be “desirable” for all EU countries to bring forward the administration period of the third dose. Currently, the booster jab can be received six months after the second one, but the EMA is asking to cut that time to three months.

Marco Cavalieri, the head of vaccine strategy for the EMA, said, “The current recommendation is to put the booster dose preferably after six months, but the available data indicate that it is safe and effective to administer it as soon as three months after the first vaccination”.

As far as Spain is concerned, cutting this time period would disrupt the current vaccination strategy, where the booster is offered six months after the second dose, as per the original recommendation of the EMA.

Spain has its own system employed for administering the boosters. Other member states are giving the third dose to everybody, whereas Spanish health authorities are using the exact same roadmap used for the first two does.

They are working in age group order, from oldest to youngest, with the exception of seriously ill, or people vaccinated with Janssen. For the moment, Spain is inoculating those over 60 years of age with the third dose of vaccine.

Cavalieri insisted on Thursday that vaccination is practically the only instrument that exists to curb the spread of the pandemic in Europe. AS he said, “it continues to be very worrying in Europe”. As a result, the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) has published a new situation map this Thursday, showing that almost all regions of Europe are at high, or very high risk.

“We reiterate our call to citizens to complete their original vaccination against Covid, and, to those who are eligible, to get the booster dose,” the head of the EMA asked.

He alluded to the studies that support the combination of vaccines from different brands, which makes them “even more effective” against Covid, at least against the delta variant, which is still the dominant one, and given the uncertainties that the new omicron variant continues to pose, as reported by 20minutos.es.

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