The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has expressed doubts about introducing a fourth coronavirus vaccine to the general population, saying booster boosters are not a “sustainable” strategy. “Nobody knows exactly when we will be at the end of the tunnel, but we will be there,” Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccination strategy at the Amsterdam regulatory body, told reporters.
“With increasing immunity among the population – and with Omicron, in addition to vaccination, there will be a lot of natural immunity – we will quickly move towards a scenario that will be closer to endemicity,” he added. But the expert urged not to forget that “we are still in a pandemic,” noting the enormous burden on health care due to the surge in Omicron.
According to the Turkish edition of the Daily Sabah, earlier the World Health Organization (WHO) said that more than half of people in Europe could become infected with a new variant of the coronavirus in the next two months. The WHO also warned that re-boosters against COVID-19 are not a viable strategy.
“If we have a strategy where we do booster shots every four months, we could have problems with the immune response,” said Marco Cavaleri of the EMA. — And secondly, of course, there is a risk of fatigue of the population with the constant introduction of boosters. ” Instead, countries should start thinking about booster vaccinations at longer intervals and synchronizing them with the onset of the cold season, as influenza vaccines are currently being administered, Cavaleri said.
The European Medicines Agency separately stated that studies have confirmed that, despite the higher infectivity, the risk of hospitalization with the Omicron option is one third to half the risk associated with the Delta strain.
European countries continue to report record numbers of infections, with Germany being the latest to break its previous record for COVID infections. Germany reported 80,430 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, the highest recorded in a single day since the start of the pandemic, while the contagious Omicron variant affects populations with lower vaccination rates than in some other parts of Europe. The previous daily record, November 26, was over 76,000.
The number of infected people in Germany currently stands at 7,661,811. The coronavirus death toll also rose 384 on Wednesday to reach 114,735. According to the latest data from the Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases, just under 75% of the population received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
The seven-day incidence rate, a key criterion for policy-making on coronavirus, has grown steadily since the beginning of the year to 407.5 cases per 100,000 on Wednesday, up from 387.9 cases a day earlier.
The daily number of new COVID-19 cases in Hungary jumped to 7,883 on Wednesday from the 5,270 reported a week earlier, but the number of patients treated in hospitals fell in a week, the government said. The government said the new version of Omicron caused 29% of new infections, but some private laboratories reported much higher numbers. In Hungary, a country of 10 million people, 40,083 people have died from COVID-19. There are now 2,758 patients with coronavirus in the hospital, of which 257 are connected to ventilators.
Meanwhile, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said Wednesday that it is too early to say that the current wave of the novel coronavirus, fueled by Omicron, has peaked in France, which is currently reporting a record number of new cases daily.
“We still need a little time to understand if we are approaching the current peak of COVID,” Veran told radio France Info, adding that the more dangerous Delta variant is being cut in France.
French health authorities on Tuesday reported 368,149 new cases of coronavirus, the highest in a single day of a pandemic.
Elsewhere in the world, the variant of the coronavirus has spread across Australia, despite high vaccination rates and strict border policies that have left the country largely isolated from the world for nearly two years. These measures, which made the Green Continent virtually COVID-19 free at the start of the pandemic, have garnered attention in the wake of attempts to deport non-grafted tennis player Novak Djokovic ahead of the Australian Open. And they raised questions from frustrated and weary Australians about why their country, which seemingly did everything to stop the spread of the virus, is now infected with COVID.
Officially, there are currently over 600,000 active infections among Australia’s 26 million people, although experts believe the actual number is much higher. Health experts say the surge is due in part to a coincidence of two phenomena: the reluctance of politicians to break promises made before the Omicron that they would loosen restrictions such as wearing masks, and the emergence of an incredibly contagious option. Faced with a spike in infections, the government of Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, ultimately backed down last month and reintroduced mandatory masking. But by then, epidemiologists say, it was too late.
Although deaths and hospitalizations remain relatively low, vaccines have not stopped the spread of the coronavirus. Australia’s vaccination program, which resulted in about 80% of the total population having received at least one vaccination, also began later than in many other Western countries, with the result that a large part of its population has not yet been eligible for revaccination.
“Vaccinations alone are not enough,” says epidemiologist Adrian Esterman, chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of South Australia. — We were doing so well until NSW decided it didn’t want to go into quarantine. ”
Esterman urged policymakers to ensure masking, social distancing and better ventilation in schools, especially as students prepare to return from the Southern Hemisphere summer break. Children aged 5 to 11 were eligible for vaccination this month only.
“We don’t have enough vaccines for young people,” said Esterman, who previously worked for WHO. — We know how to keep schools safe: first, vaccinate children and teachers, make sure the ventilation is very good, and make children wear masks. Are we doing this in Australia? Not”.
While high levels of vaccine use in Australia have averted an even worse crisis in congested hospitals, Australian Medical Association President Dr Omar Horshid admitted it was difficult to see the country plummet from its position as the epitome of COVID-19 containment.
“It is certainly disappointing that our per capita rate is approaching the highest in the world, for example, in New South Wales, when not so long ago we were at the lowest level in the world,” he said. — It is a bit of a pity that the discovery of the country almost perfectly coincided with the outbreak of the omicronic epidemic that began around the world. “
In recent months, the government has abandoned its long-standing ‘zero COVID’ approach to a ‘live with it’ approach, which has left many Australians in disarray.
Australia’s health care system was caught off guard. Queues for PCR tests often take hours, results take days, and the lack of rapid antigen tests has left sick Australians rushing from store to store in search of kits.
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