• Additional doses should already be considered for people with severely weakened immune systems as part of their primary vaccination

By Kelum Bandara

A new study based on current evidence has ruled out any urgent need for booster shots for people fully vaccinated against Covid . 

The technical report issued by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)  notes that additional doses should already be considered for people with severely weakened immune systems as part of their primary vaccination.
“Evidence on vaccine effectiveness and duration of protection shows that all vaccines authorised in the EU/EEA are currently highly protective against COVID-19-related hospitalisation, severe disease and death, while about one out of three adults in the EU/EEA over 18 years is still currently not fully vaccinated. In this situation, the priority now should be to vaccinate all those eligible individuals who have not yet completed their recommended vaccination course,” the report says.

To complement vaccination efforts, it is also crucial to continue applying measures such as physical distancing, hand and respiratory hygiene, and using face masks where needed, in particular in high-risk settings such as long-term care facilities or hospital wards with patients at risk of severe COVID-19.

The report also says It is important to distinguish between booster doses for people with normal immune systems and additional doses for those with weakened immune systems. Some studies report that an additional vaccine dose can improve the immune response in immunocompromised individuals, such as organ transplant recipients whose initial responses to vaccination were low. In such cases, the option of administering an additional dose should be considered already now.

“Consideration could also be given to providing an additional dose, as a precautionary measure, to older frail individuals, in particular those living in closed settings such as residents of long-term care facilities,” it says.