In that sense, he urged to think about a long-term vaccination strategy, because you cannot “give booster doses every three or four months” in the future, he asserted. In a press conference, the head of the entity, Marco Cavaleri, assured that this method could end up overloading the immune system.
In that sense, he urged to think about a long-term vaccination strategy because “booster doses cannot be given every three or four months” in the future, he said.
According to Cavaleri, the real-world effectiveness data suggests that people with booster doses (third dose, or second in Janssen’s case) are “better protected than those who only received their primary regimen.” Two doses offer “up to 70% protection against hospitalization” with omicron according to data from South Africa, which rises to 90% after reinforcement.
However, he stressed that there is not enough data to talk about a possible fourth dose.
“Of course we cannot give booster doses continuously every three or four months (…) We will probably end up having problems with the immune response that will not be as good as we would like. So we should be careful not to overload the immune system with repeat immunization, ”he summarized.
In addition, he considered that “there is a risk of fatigue in the population” with the continuous administration of reinforcements.
If there were no other option from an epidemiological point of view, “it can be done once or twice, but it is not something that we can think that it should be repeated constantly and it would be much better to start thinking about a more time-spaced reinforcement administration”, As is the case with the flu in the fall.
The EMA is evaluating a request from Pfizer to extend its booster dose license to teens ages 16 and 17, and the drugmaker is expected to file a similar request for children ages 12 to 15.
With information from EFE.
Source-larepublica.pe