Sweden recommended getting a fourth COVID-19 vaccine for people over 65, as well as for residents of nursing homes or receiving home health care.
The new guideline lowers the age mentioned in a previous recommendation, which was 80 years.
The fourth vaccine is also recommended for those between the ages of 18 and 64 who have a vulnerable immune system, according to guidelines from the Swedish Public Health Agency.
“The goal is the same as before, to prevent serious illness and death from COVID-19,” said agency director Karin Tegmark Wisell.
Giving another booster shot to more people is “justifiable,” he added, because infection rates continue to rise in Sweden and other countries and the immunity offered by vaccines is beginning to wane in older people.
“For people 65 and older, four months have passed since the previous vaccine, and over time the immunity offered by the vaccines wanes,” Tegmark Wisell said.
During most of the pandemic, Sweden has been in stark contrast to the rest of Europe due to the few restrictions it has imposed. He never ordered a collective confinement or ordered the closure of businesses, leaving sanitary measures to be the individual responsibility.
While deaths in Sweden were higher than those in other Nordic countries, they were fewer than other European countries that did impose mass lockdowns.
Tegmark Wisell stressed that “the pandemic is not over and in Sweden we continue to have a significant spread of the disease.”
–
