Corona booster
World Medical Association boss Montgomery calls for booster vaccinations for everyone
Risk groups were able to pick up their booster against the coronavirus some time ago.
© Peter Endig / DPA
The (mostly third) corona vaccination is still only recommended for people over 70 years of age. But world medical president Frank Ulrich Montgomery estimates that the booster will soon be suggested to everyone who has had the last spade six months ago.
The head of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, calls for Corona booster vaccinations for younger people too. “Anyone who was fully vaccinated six months ago should get a booster vaccination soon,” Montgomery told the Funke media group’s newspapers. A new, central vaccination campaign is necessary, which is not only aimed at the unvaccinated, “but also advertises general booster vaccinations”.
Boosters could be recommended for everyone
So far, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) has recommended booster vaccinations only from the age of 70, but it is to be expected that there will soon be a general recommendation. “Because the immune protection declines after six months, we as a society must have an interest in ensuring that the protection remains stable,” warned the head of the Ärztebund.
According to its chairman Mertens, the Stiko is currently dealing extensively with the subject of booster vaccinations. “The Standing Vaccination Commission is currently examining very intensively whether it will recommend booster vaccinations for all population groups,” Mertens told the newspapers of the Funke media group. There are data from international studies that speak in favor of it, but it must be examined to what extent these results can be transferred to Germany. “A decision will be made in a few weeks,” said Mertens. With such a general recommendation for booster vaccinations, the decisive question is whether this can slow down the spread of the virus, said Mertens.
The booster vaccinations should be done by the resident doctors, demanded Montgomery. Vaccination centers are ten times more expensive than vaccinations in the doctor’s office, and the inhibition threshold for many people is lower at the family doctor.
Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) had called on the states to reactivate the vaccination centers for booster vaccinations. The sometimes more than 400 vaccination centers in Germany had played a central role in the spring and summer, most of them are currently not in operation. The cities, however, criticize the short-term reactivation. A vaccination center is “not a flashlight” that can be switched off and on again depending on the mood, according to a letter from the German Association of Cities to the health ministers of the federal states. Structures have been changed, areas have been used for other purposes, and staff have been redeployed. Such a change of direction is not understandable