EU regulator looks at need for Pfizer vaccine’s booster

The European Union’s drug regulator said on Monday that it has started an expedited evaluation on whether to recommend a booster dose of the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-biontech.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said in a statement that it’s considering whether a third dose of the vaccine should be given six months after people age 16 and older have received two doses, “to restore protection after it has waned”.

The EMA’S experts are carrying out an “accelerated assessment” of data submitted by Pfizer and Biontech, including results from an ongoing trial in which about 300 healthy adults received a booster shot about six months after their second dose.

The World Health Organization has pleaded with rich countries not to use booster doses until at least the end of September,

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saying there is no scientific data that proves the shots are necessary.

Italy’s life expectancy sees fall by 1.2 years

Covid-19 cut average life expectancy in Italy by 1.2 years in 2020, and by more than four years in parts of the country hit hard by the pandemic, statistics showed on Monday. Life expectancy at birth last year stood at 82 years, compared to 83.2 years in 2019, the Istat national statistics office said in a release.

“In 2020, the spread of Covid-19 and the resulting increase in mortality interrupted the growth in life expectancy at birth that had characterised the trend until 2019,” it said.

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