EU evaluating if ‘booster’ is needed

AMSTERDAM, Sept 7, (AP): The European Union’s drug regulator said 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 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.”

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.

Pfizer has already submitted an application to the US Food and Drug Administer for authorization of a third dose and the US government said last month that boosters would likely be available in late September. Israel has already started administering booster doses and similar plans are under consideration in other countries for vulnerable populations, including Britain, France and Germany.

The World Health Organization has pleaded with rich countries not to use booster doses until at least the end of September, saying there is no scientific data that proves the shots are necessary. It says COVID-19 vaccines would be put to better use in developing countries, which have received fewer than 2% of the more than 5 billion doses administered.

Protection

Several studies have showed that protection from authorized COVID-19 vaccines against the highly infectious delta variant drops months after people have been immunized, but the shots still offer strong protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death.

The Amsterdam-based EMA said it expects to make a decision about whether or not to recommend a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine in the next few weeks.

It said it was also reviewing the use of a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in people with weak immune systems. It said those people might need an extra dose “as part of their primary vaccination” programs.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has publicly rebuked a top rival politician’s comments describing people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 as “guinea pigs.”

The long-serving leader said Tuesday in a speech before Parliament that “none of us was and is any way a guinea pig when it comes to vaccination.”

Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose center-left Social Democrats Party currently leads polls ahead of Germany’s Sept. 26 elections, recently said that fully vaccinated people have been “the guinea pigs for those who so far have held off.” He added that he was vaccinated and others should follow.

Merkel, however, did not appear to agree with her deputy’s messaging in her Tuesday speech.

The chancellor said that “neither Olaf Scholz nor me, and no one else” was a “guinea pig” in taking the fully tested and approved vaccines in Germany.

Merkel’s center-right bloc is struggling in polls ahead of nationwide elections.

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NEW YORK: The resurgence of COVID-19 this summer and the national debate over vaccine requirements have created a fraught situation for the United States’ first responders, who are dying in larger numbers but pushing back against mandates.

It’s a stark contrast from the beginning of the vaccine rollout when first responders were prioritized for shots.

The mandates affect tens of thousands of police officers, firefighters and others on the front lines across the country, many of whom are spurning the vaccine. That is happening despite mandates’ consequences that range from weekly testing to suspension to termination - even though the virus is now the leading cause of U.S. law enforcement line-of-duty deaths.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, 132 members of law enforcement agencies are known to have died of COVID-19 in 2021. In Florida alone last month, six people affiliated with law enforcement died over a 10day period.

Despite the deaths, police officers and other first responders are among those most hesitant to get the vaccine and their cases continue to grow. No national statistics show the vaccination rate for America’s entire population of first responders but individual police and fire departments across the country report figures far below the national rate of 74% of adults who have had at least one dose.