Why were the first two shots recommended for minors and the booster not?
The same Health Council that now says that the booster for young people up to 18 years is not necessary, recommended last summer to vaccinate young people with two doses of the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine. The vaccine hasn’t changed, so what has?
Most young people still have few complaints when they get corona. The advice to vaccinate them was therefore not only intended to better protect young people against symptoms of disease. It was mainly about the indirect effects.
The idea was that if many young people are vaccinated, the virus will circulate less in that group. And fewer infections means fewer quarantines and fewer school closures.
But that reasoning no longer holds, says the council. The booster provides hardly any benefits, either directly or indirectly. Because the milder omikron variant is now dominant and many restrictive measures have been released, the risk of school closures and quarantine is much smaller. Boosting young people also contributes little to slowing down the general spread of the virus.
Can young people go on holiday without a booster?
In many countries yes, especially if young people under 18 have been vaccinated. The last vaccination is often still valid for a few months for young people. In some countries there are restrictions for people without a booster shot. That can be a problem for young people who received their last vaccination in August. In Italy, for example, the validity of a vaccination certificate for restaurants, ski lifts and other facilities expires after six months. In Austria, the rules for adults also apply to young people aged 16 and over.
A complete overview of the specific rules per country is available at Netherlands Worldwide and the ANWB Travel Guide to find.
When will the cabinet make a decision about the booster for minors?
When asked, Minister Kuipers did not want to say that today. He first wants to carefully study the advice of the Health Council. When asked whether he also takes into account young people who, for example, want to go on holiday in a country that asks for a booster vaccination in his decision, the corona minister says that he will focus first on the health aspects.
Are young people in other countries being boosted?
Yes. This is already happening in Germany, for example. Today it was announced that teenagers in Flanders can also get a booster jab from the end of next week.
The fact that it is not (yet) possible in the Netherlands sometimes already leads to ‘booster tourism’, because German injection locations also vaccinate young people from the border region who do not live in Germany. GGDs in the border region don’t recommend that by the way, because with a German jab you cannot get a QR code for the Dutch CoronaCheck app (according to holidaymakers on winter sports forums it works with the German corona Warn App).
–
