Pandemic
“An important step in the right direction”: Stiko wants to recommend a fourth vaccination for everyone over the age of 60
Stiko wants to recommend the second booster shot to everyone over the age of 60.
© Daniel Karmann / DPA
The Standing Vaccination Commission now wants to advise everyone over the age of 60 to take a fourth spade. The last corona vaccination should have been at least six months ago.
The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) now wants to recommend the fourth corona vaccination to all people between the ages of 60 and 69. However, according to the decision recommendation that was available to the AFP news agency on Monday evening, the condition is that the first booster vaccination or the last corona infection was at least six months ago. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) welcomed the decision.
Only in “justified individual cases” can the interval be reduced to four months, according to the paper updating the Covid 19 vaccination recommendation, which the “Bild” newspaper had previously reported on.
Fourth vaccination recommended for everyone over 60 years of age
The EU authorities are already recommending a fourth vaccination from the age of 60, while Stiko has so far only recommended it for people over 70 or patients at risk.
Lauterbach wrote down the recommended decision Twitter, this is “an important step in the right direction”. The minister has long advocated a fourth vaccination for people under 60.
A fourth vaccination is also recommended for all people from the age of five with an increased risk of severe Covid-19 courses due to an underlying disease such as immune deficiency, diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, according to the Stiko draft resolution, on which expert statements can now be made .
A vaccination campaign for the second booster vaccination should start in mid-September “in order to achieve optimal protection in the coming autumn or winter”. Citizens should not wait for the adapted Omicron vaccine, which is expected in September.
Don’t wait for adapted vaccines
“It is not recommended to wait for an adapted vaccine and therefore to postpone an indicated vaccination,” says the draft decision. As soon as variant-adapted vaccines are approved and available, Stiko will “process the evidence and adjust its recommendation if necessary”. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach wrote on Twitter that studies for people aged 50 and over show a clear survival benefit from the fourth vaccination. “The protective effect is very strong. Therefore, the elderly and patients at risk should not wait for new vaccines.”
The European approval of the new vaccines against the Omicron variants BA.1 and BA.5 is expected in September, Lauterbach announced last week, as reported by the “Handelsblatt”. This is due on September 1st for BA.1 and September 27th for BA.5. The vaccines could be delivered the following day.
National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians welcomes the recommendation
“It is to be welcomed that the Stiko is scientifically well-founded and extends the indication for a second booster vaccination to people over 60 years of age and to those with an increased risk of severe Covid-19 courses,” said the chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen, the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”. At the same time, there is a clear statement for those under the age of 60 that people of this age with a healthy immune system would not benefit from a second booster, “and this is therefore not recommended in general”.
“The practices are ready for the vaccinations according to the Stiko recommendation with the usual professionalism,” Gassen continued. It is positive that “the adapted vaccine should now also come in autumn”. People who have not yet received their third vaccination should not necessarily wait that long,” emphasized the KBV boss.
Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) explained that it was “right and important that Stiko now wants to recommend the second booster vaccination against Corona for people over 60 years of age”. As a result, Germany is in line with the recommendations at EU level.