To protect the population against new variants of the coronavirus, the United Kingdom wants to vaccinate people a third time against covid-19 from September. Vaccinologist Pierre Van Damme does not want to speculate on this yet.
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People over 70 could receive a ‘booster vaccine’ as early as September, says minister responsible for the vaccination campaign, Nadhim Zahawi. Care personnel and certain high-risk patients also have their turn first.
Furthermore, Zahawi said he expects eight different corona vaccines to be available by the fall. In addition, drive-through vaccination centers will soon be opening, where people can be vaccinated in their cars. For example, Zahawi hopes to convince young people in particular to get vaccinated once it is their turn.
The UK government previously announced that all adults would receive at least one dose of a corona vaccine by the end of July. She made no concrete statements about the period after that. Currently, some 30 million people, more than half of adults, in the UK received a first dose and over 3 million people a second.
Situation with us
In our country, 12.5 percent of the adult population has already received at least one injection, 5.2 percent has been fully vaccinated.
Our specialists are not yet talking about a third injection. Vaccinologist Pierre Van Damme (UAntwerpen) does not want to prejudge that decision, he said this morning. It all has to do with what vaccines are available, how the virus evolves and he also wants to wait for studies to show that a third shot is indeed safe.
Last month, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that it is indeed investigating the effect of a possible third dose of its vaccine. The company boasts an effectiveness of 95 percent after two doses. “We believe that a third dose can increase the antibody response by another 10 to 20 percent,” the company chief told NBC at the time.
In the United Arab Emirates, the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine is now also being vaccinated for a third time.
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