More Cavaleri, FRANKFURT, Dec 9, Dec 9 Reuters - The European Union's drugs regulators said it could make sense to administer COVID-19 vaccine boosters as early as three months after the initial two-shot regimen, because of the extremely worrying infection numbers in the region.
The European Medicines Agency's EMA Head of Vaccines Strategy, Marco Cavaleri, said the current recommendation is to give boosters preferably after six months, but the data currently available supports the safe and effective administration of a booster as early as three months from completion.
Preparations were in full swing for the review of any redesigned vaccines that target the new Omicron variant, should it be needed, but the spread of the dominant Delta variant should now be front and centre of the fight against the current wave, he said.
Cavaleri said that the immunological situation in Europe remains extremely worrying. Delta will be the focus of public health actions to deal with the pandemic and its consequences. He added.
The EMA said vaccine makers were required to submit results of laboratory tests to determine the level of neutralizing antibodies generated by their shots against Omicrons, part of the fact-finding to determine the need for vaccine upgrades.
Partners BioNTech and Pfizer were the first to publish such data, saying a three-shot course of their vaccine was able to neutralise Omicron.
Cavaleri said that so far, no safety concerns have emerged from the vaccination campaign among five to 11 year-old children in the United States, where more than 5 million people in that age group have received at least one shot.
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that vaccines provided a robust level of protection against severe disease for at least six months for most people.
For the time being, it said that administering primary doses to people in poorer countries should be the priority and that third doses should only be given to people with underlying health issues or who had received an inactivated vaccine.