NOTnew step in the vaccination campaign against the Omicron variant. European health authorities recommended on Tuesday that the elderly and people at risk of a severe form of Covid-19 be on the front line for the administration of vaccines adapted to the variant. Pregnant women and healthcare workers should also be prioritized, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a joint statement.
Ahead of a winter recall campaign, the EMA last week approved bivalent sera from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna that target both the original strain of coronavirus and the Omicron BA.1 subvariant. “The ECDC and the EMA advise that these recalls should be targeted as a priority for people most at risk of developing a severe form of the disease due to certain risk factors,” the EU agencies said.
“Always effective against the severe form of the disease”
These include people aged 60 and over, immunocompromised people, people with other underlying conditions that put them at risk of developing a severe form of the disease, and pregnant women, they said. Staff in nursing homes should also be given priority and healthcare workers “could also be considered due to their increased exposure in the event of further waves”.
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EU agencies have said the original vaccines should be given to people who have had their first vaccinations, and in situations where suitable booster doses are not available, as they are “still effective against the severe form of illness, hospitalization and death”. Vaccines in circulation target the initial strain of the virus, which first emerged in Wuhan, China, but has gradually proven less effective against variants that have evolved over time. Unlike the Alpha and Delta variants, which eventually declined, Omicron and its subvariants ended up dominating contaminations worldwide in 2022.
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