The European Medicines Agency said on Thursday that there was no “urgent need” to make COVID-19 booster truffles for fully vaccinated people and suggested that emphasis should be maintained on primary vaccination and getting shots at arms of one in three adults in the European Union that is not yet inoculated.
The news, made in a statement, offers a regulator’s latest stance on the issue, which has sparked controversy among U.S. public health experts after President Joe Biden said last month that Americans would start to get boosters from September 20th. is concerned that the White House is advancing science and data on vaccine promoters.
For more information on the reinforcement debate: COVID-19 booster vaccines are more complicated than they seem. Here’s why.
The EMA’s statement is in line with the World Health Organization’s view of the drivers: that is, developed countries should not offer any, while the rest of the world still sees hampered by supply shortages after richer countries claimed most of the first available features.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for a moratorium on promoters on 4 August to ensure that the poorest countries have access to the first doses. The agency has said there is still not enough data to show that people who have received both shots of a two-dose vaccine need reinforcements to control the spread of the virus.
Do not miss: The WHO warns of 236,000 new deaths from COVID-19 in Europe in December and Fauci says the US could see another 100,000
The WHO has pushed for vaccines to reach 10% of the population of all countries by September, arguing that as large areas of a population are not vaccinated, variants may appear, with the risk that demonstrate that it is fully resistant to the vaccine.
On Wednesday, the WHO said it had identified a new “variant of interest” called B.1.621, and assigned the Greek letter mu. For the time being, additional studies are needed to assess its ability to resist vaccines authorized or approved for use worldwide.
Do not miss: The WHO identifies the new “variant of interest” of the coronavirus and experts call for caution from promoters
Some countries are already giving impetus to some of their vaccinated populations, including Israel, Germany and France. The UK has promised to give them to people with very weakened immune systems who are at high risk for serious illness, but has not yet decided on the rest of the population. These shots are considered third shots and are part of the primary vaccination.
The EMA statement makes it clear that it would also classify traits for immunocompromised individuals as part of primary vaccination.
“Evidence on vaccine efficacy and duration of protection shows that all vaccines authorized in the EU / EEA are currently highly protective against COVID-19-related hospitalization, serious illness and death.” states the EMA statement.
The Biden administration announced that Americans who have been completely vaccinated with a two-dose regimen against Covid-19 should receive a booster, citing the threat of the highly contagious Delta variant. WSJ breaks down what you need to know. Photo: Hannah Beier / Reuters
Moderna Inc. MRNA,
meanwhile, it submitted its reinforcement data to the FDA on Wednesday afternoon. BioNTech BNTX,
and Pfizer PFE,
he said last week that they had sent the FDA data on their booster shot. These data examined antibody levels in adults who received a third dose four to eight months after the initial vaccination.
There was promising news in a study published Wednesday in the medical journal The Lancet, which found that the risk of so-called long-term COVID decreases by almost half after a person receives two doses of vaccine.
The researchers found that the chances of having symptoms for 28 days or more after infection after vaccination were reduced by about half when you had two doses of vaccine.
The study also found that almost all symptoms were less common in vaccinated individuals, that more vaccinated individuals than in unvaccinated groups were completely asymptomatic, and that COVID-19 was less severe (both in terms of the number of symptoms during vaccination). first week of infection and the need for hospitalization) in participants after the first or second dose of vaccine compared to unvaccinated participants.
The study was based on 1.2 million people who used a COVID symptom application in the UK
In the United States, the vaccination program, which has gained momentum in recent weeks as more employers force vaccinators returning to offices and schools back to the session, continued to increase. Monitoring by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 174.6 million people are fully vaccinated, representing 52.6% of the global population. This means that they have had two shots of the Pfizer vaccine and the German partner BioNTech or the one developed by Moderna, or one of Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ,
single dose vaccine.
Among American adults over the age of 18, 63.6% are fully inoculated and 74.4% have received at least one dose.
But cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise to the highest levels since winter, as the delta variant shows no sign of slowing its spread. A New York Times tracker shows that hospitalizations remain above the 100,000 daily average and the average daily mortality is 1,418.
Since early August, the number of daily deaths has quadrupled, and most are among unvaccinated people.
See: Joe Rogan says he has COVID-19, adopted a “kitchen sink” approach to treatment, including ivermectin
Elsewhere, Bulgaria is tightening restrictions to combat the spread of the virus and will close restaurants and bars at 10pm starting September 7 and host indoor sports without spectators, The Guardian reported. According to Reuters, Bulgaria has the lowest vaccination rate in the EU, with only 16.7% of its population, and the highest mortality rate, and has lost about 18,950 people against COVID since the outbreak began.
India registered 47,092 new cases of COVID on Thursday, marking the biggest one-day count in two months, India Today.com reported. The last time the cases were higher was 63 days ago, on July 1, when India reported 48,786 cases. 41,965 cases of COVID-19 were recorded on Wednesday.
Hawaii is struggling to transport oxygen tanks from the mainland as it faces a wave of COVID cases, the New York Times reported. Medical officials are calling on Hawaiians to postpone elective surgeries, as intensive care beds are used for patients with COVID. The seven-day hospitalization average peaked at 427 on Monday, driven by the delta variant and a relatively low vaccination rate.
See now: The EU recommends restrictions on Americans amid rising COVID. Read it before traveling to Europe
Latest stories
The overall account of coronavirus-transmitted disease exceeded 218.6 million on Thursday, while the death toll rose to 4.54 million, according to data added by Johns Hopkins University.
The United States leads the world with a total of 39.4 million cases and 642,096 deaths.
India has the second highest number of deaths after the United States (439,529) and is the third by cases (32.9 million), according to data from Johns Hopkins.
Brazil has the second death toll at 581,150 and has had 20.8 million cases.
In Europe, Russia recorded 181,560 deaths, followed by the United Kingdom with 133,066.
China, where the virus was first discovered in late 2019, has had 107,102 confirmed cases and 4,848 deaths, according to its official figures, which is considered not to be reported en masse.