General practitioners insist: rapid vaccine for risk groups under 60 | Inland

The ministry says that it has been working all weekend to update the vaccination strategy. Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge will provide more information on Monday or Tuesday. The LHV hopes that the minister will provide ‘clarity and perspective’ on the vaccination of, for example, people with obesity, certain neurological disorders and Down’s syndrome.

GPs also see a growing problem among people over the age of 60. Hard figures are lacking, but it seems that since the ‘injection break’ and the fuss about the AstraZeneca vaccine, more people in this group are refraining from their injection. “We are receiving signals from GPs who say that the turnout is disappointing,” said the spokeswoman. The picture is variable: in Drenthe many people in their sixties did get vaccinated, but in the urban area of ​​South Holland “it seems to be less.” A GP from Zwolle announced last weekend that only half of his patients between the ages of 60 and 65 showed up.

‘Unrest and frustration’

The LHV sees “unrest and frustration” among GPs. “Then you have set up everything next to your busy practice and now you notice that, probably partly because of the two injection stops, some of the people stay away.” At the same time, GPs are “called flat” with questions and doubts, says the spokeswoman.

If GPs are left with vaccines, they are allowed to offer them to people over the age of 65. The LHV emphasizes that it is “legally vulnerable” to still inject people under the age of 60 with AstraZeneca. “That is not something we recommend. It’s not the policy. ” Whether it still occurs, the spokeswoman does not know. Incidentally, people under the age of 60 who work in healthcare and have already received one injection can still get the second. Serious side effects have not occurred after a second dose.

Rare cases

In very rare cases, the first injection can cause serious side effects: a combination of thrombosis and a shortage of blood platelets. As far as is currently known, this clinical picture occurs after less than 1 in 150,000 injections. In a few dozen cases the outcome was fatal, out of a total of tens of millions of doses administered.

According to the RIVM, more than 1 percent of all people in the Netherlands who are diagnosed with Covid-19 die. “For the over-60s group, the risk of death from Covid-19 is much greater than the risk of the adverse reaction or death from it,” noted the Health Council in its latest advice on the vaccine. “In people under 60, the utility-risk ratio is less favorable, because they have a much lower risk of death from Covid-19.”

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