No longer giving everyone booster shots against corona, but looking at which risk groups this is necessary in view of the epidemiological circumstances. That’s the point of an advice that the Health Council Friday to the cabinet and that Minister Ernst Kuipers (Public Health, D66) will take over. The Health Council writes in the advice that it is not necessary to continuously maintain the immunity of the entire population by means of periodic repeat injections in the coming period.
This strategy also fits the new advice of the Health Council to offer a second booster, also called the fourth shot, to all people over 60. Last month, people over 70 were already given the opportunity to get another repeat shot. According to the Health Council, the current Omikron wave is taking longer than expected and there is “a high degree of uncertainty about the course of the number of infections in the coming weeks”. Because the protection of the first booster is already decreasing and the number of hospital admissions among the elderly is increasing, the Council advises people over 60 to get another shot. Kuipers immediately took over that advice on Friday: people over 60 can already schedule an appointment from Saturday.
Low turnout
The turnout among the over-70s for the second booster has so far been disappointing. In recent weeks, about a third of this group made a prick appointment, this week showed figures from the RIVM† Kuipers expressed his concerns about this and called on all people over 60 to go to the vaccination street again on Friday. “It’s really important, so I hope a lot of people do it.”
The fact that the elderly are going to get the fourth shot is currently especially important for individuals themselves, says professor of immunology Marjolein van Egmond (Amsterdam UMC). “The fourth shot helps even better to prevent people over 60 from being hospitalized, according to data from Israel.” At the level of society, the turnout in the ticketing streets is currently less important, thinks Van Egmond. “The hospitals were also able to handle the number of patients when we recently had 100,000 infections per day. As a society, we now have enough immunity to ensure that Omikron no longer disrupts healthcare.”
The professor calls on every elderly person who feels vulnerable to get the second booster. “Every hospitalization that could have been prevented is a gain, because such an admission is always a personal drama.”
New variant
The Health Council advises closely monitoring the situation with regard to the coronavirus for the coming year and to see when it may be necessary to give specific groups a booster again. The council writes that it is still “uncertain whether and when new virus variants will develop and whether they will be more or less pathogenic”. The Health Council sees no added value in continuing to offer boosters to the entire population, as was done with the first booster last autumn.
Professor Van Egmond currently sees no need to continue to boost people under the age of 60. “Vaccinated young people now have very little chance of ending up in hospital with Omikron. Then such a new booster actually has no added value.” A scenario in which, according to Van Egmond, it may again be necessary to boost more massively is a new variant. “If such a variant is more aggressive and the immunity in the population is much lower in the autumn, then it may be necessary. But that’s just looking at coffee grounds for now.”