To better protect people, the corona vaccine must be adjusted before the vaccination round in the autumn. This is the advice of the European medicine agency EMA.
Last year, corona vaccines were approved against variants BA.4 and BA.5 of omikron. But now another variant of omikron has been dominant for a long time, namely XBB.
Although current vaccines still protect against hospitalization, serious illness and death, the EMA recommends adapting the vaccines to the XBB variant. An adapted vaccine protects better against the variant that is now circulating. “It is not unusual for a corona vaccine to be modified,” responds Ton de Boer, chairman of the Medicines Evaluation Board. “Viruses have the property to change. You can compare this with the influenza strains in the flu shot. are also adjusted annually to the expected flu viruses.”
New vaccination round
Whether there will be a new vaccination round in the autumn and what it will look like, care minister Ernst Kuipers has yet to decide. The Health Council expects to issue an advice on a vaccination strategy at the end of this month. Experts assess, among other things, how much health gain can be achieved with recurring vaccination rounds. They also advise on the type of vaccines that should be used.
The last vaccination round started last fall. Slightly more than 60 percent of the over-60s got the shot. There are currently around 75 corona patients in hospital. A year ago there were more than 300.
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2023-06-09 12:15:10
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