Steven Van Gucht: “Fourth jab possible at the end of this summer or early this fall” | Coronavirus what you need to know

The correct timing of the booster shot could be very important in the future management of the pandemic, according to the virologist. “The fourth shot is coming anyway,” he says. “I suspect it will be for late summer or early fall. The question is which groups should we focus on: only people with an increased risk or the general population. That is not yet clear.”

Van Gucht thinks that people at high risk should be eligible anyway. “Those are the people we normally give a flu shot,” he continues. “Whether you have to generalize it to the general population depends a bit on the variants that are circulating at that time. During the fourth wave with the delta variant, we also saw a lot of young people in the hospital. If we saw a situation like this again, I would rather go for a general booster shot. But it’s too early to say that now. The two are possible. If it’s not really necessary, I wouldn’t do it anyway.”

The virologist does not call himself a “variant pessimist”. “I think our immunity evolves with it. It just keeps getting stronger and wider. That will help us too. But a new variant can certainly ensure that the virus gains just a little more advantage and that you get a new outbreak.”

When exactly that will happen is actually difficult to predict. “It cannot be ruled out that this will be in three months’ time or this summer. My gut feeling is that it probably won’t be, but that it’s more likely to be something for next fall or winter. But maybe we are lucky and not much will happen next autumn and next winter and it will only be before the winter after that. We don’t actually know. The pattern can go either way. Perhaps we will have a particularly severe flu season.”

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