Tuesday, November 02, 2021
Decision “in a few weeks”
STIKO is testing booster vaccinations for everyone
So far, the Standing Vaccination Commission has recommended booster vaccinations against the coronavirus for people aged 70 and over. The STIKO will soon decide whether the recommendation will be extended to all age groups. A pharmacy professor, however, demands a condition for the booster syringe.
The Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) wants to decide at short notice whether booster vaccinations against the coronavirus are recommended for everyone in Germany. “The Standing Vaccination Commission is currently examining very intensively whether it will recommend booster vaccinations for all population groups,” said STIKO chairman Thomas Mertens to 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.”
With such a general recommendation for booster vaccinations, the decisive question is whether this can slow down the spread of the virus, said Mertens. According to the data so far, it can be assumed that in younger and healthy people the protection against infection without significant disease symptoms decreases earlier than the protection against a serious illness after infection. “With young and healthy people, six months after the basic immunization, the main aim is to prevent infections in order to reduce the transmission of the virus,” said Mertens.
The chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, called for the widest possible use of booster vaccinations. “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 needed this autumn, which is not only aimed at the unvaccinated but also promotes general booster vaccinations. “” Because the immune protection decreases after six months, we as a society must have an interest in that the protection remains stable, “warned the doctor.
Antigen test as a prerequisite
Montgomery asked for the booster vaccinations to be given to the general practitioners. They have the experience and the capacity for it. “On the other hand, it would be wrong to rely on vaccination centers again: vaccination centers were necessary in the beginning because there was too little vaccine and storage of the cans was complicated. That is different today.” Vaccination centers are ten times more expensive than vaccination in a doctor’s office, and the threshold for many people to go to the family doctor is much lower. Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn had called on the federal states to reactivate the vaccination centers for booster vaccinations.
The Frankfurt pharmacy professor Theodor Dingermann called for antibody tests as a prerequisite for booster vaccinations. “We should check the result of the vaccination in younger people in the form of antibody tests – in order to have at least a clue,” said Dingermann to the editorial network Germany (RND). He suggests this, although there are no clear limit values for the antibody concentration and the cellular immune response is not recorded, because “a half-finished vaccination check is better than none,” said the former President of the German Pharmaceutical Society (DPhG). This is not necessary for over 60-year-olds, because “here the data clearly show that a third vaccination is required”.
The goal must be a “generous booster campaign” in which “we differentiate and consider that vaccines are still in short supply globally.” The reluctance of the STIKO, which recommends nationwide booster vaccinations only for people over the age of 70, is not justified “exclusively medical-pharmaceutical”, but is also to be understood against the background of the global vaccine shortage. “In view of the data, a booster vaccination is positive or at least not harmful for all vaccinated people, that is clear from my point of view,” continues Dingermann. “The best possible booster campaign is currently the most important tool in the fight against Corona,” says the doctor. He reckons that “you need a third vaccination in two years to have a valid primary vaccination.”