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The European Medicines Agency, the main drug regulator of the European Union, Monday said A booster vaccine of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine can be given to healthy adults at least six months after the second dose, he said.
The agency said the data showed that antibody levels increased in adults ages 18 to 55 with normal immune systems who received the third dose of the vaccine. He is currently evaluating booster shots of the Moderna vaccine.
The agency also said that those with “severely weakened” immune systems can receive an extra dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine 28 days after the second dose. An additional shot is expected to “increase protection in at least some patients,” the agency said. The recommendation is based on studies showing that an extra dose of these vaccines can increase the ability to produce antibodies in transplant recipients.
In the European Union, vaccination campaigns are the prerogative of national governments, and each of the 27 member states can decide for themselves whether to give booster vaccinations to all adult residents. While some EU countries such as France, Germany and Belgium started giving extra doses to the elderly and those with weakened immune systems last month, the Czech Republic and Hungary opened this opportunity to all adults.
Although the European Union has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, more than 73 percent of adults are fully vaccinated, There is no approved coronavirus vaccine for children yet. European Center for Disease Prevention and Control warned last week He said that if governments loosen Covid-19 restrictions, the average level of vaccination across the bloc is not enough to stop the spread of the virus.
The agency said it carefully monitors “very rare” side effects of a booster shot, such as inflammatory heart conditions, but the risk is not yet known at this time.
The decision of rich countries to introduce booster vaccines while the rest of the world is largely unvaccinated has caused alarm among health professionals. World Health Organization director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for a moratorium about coronavirus vaccine booster shots for people who are not immunocompromised at least until the end of the year.
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