DAccording to the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO), the second corona booster vaccination should continue to be recommended only for people over 60 and people with previous illnesses. There are currently no plans to expand the existing corona vaccination recommendations, said STIKO chairman Thomas Mertens of the German Press Agency.
There is no reason for that. “Because it turns out that the vaccination does not offer any long-term protection against a corona infection, but probably against a severe course,” said the Ulm virologist. It is unthinkable to have the general public vaccinated regularly to avoid infections. Everyone will foreseeably become infected again and again.
Regarding the development of the current corona infection situation, Mertens said that it was very difficult to predict. However, he expects the number of infections to increase by December. There is currently another wave of corona diseases, which is causing problems for clinics, mainly due to staff shortages and failures. Mertens also expects catch-up infections with the flu to a certain extent.
STIKO advises on vaccination recommendations for children under the age of five
For corona vaccinations of small children under the age of five, the STIKO is quickly planning a recommendation for parents and doctors. A result of the consultations is “expected in the next few weeks,” said Stiko member Fred Zepp, a pediatrician at the University of Mainz, in the newspapers of the Funke media group.
The EU medicines agency EMA cleared the way for two corona vaccines for babies from six months on Wednesday. With the vaccines from the manufacturers Pfizer/Biontech or Moderna, such children could also be protected from corona infection, the EMA announced in Amsterdam. Both vaccines were already approved for adults and children aged five and six years respectively.
According to Zepp, the vaccination recommendation for slightly older children between the ages of five and eleven is having an effect: “Almost every fourth child between the ages of five and eleven has now been vaccinated against Covid-19 at least once.”
The STIKO does not see “so far in small children a high burden of disease due to the omicron variant”. Since many children have already been infected with Omicron, they are “well protected by the combination of a single vaccination and infection this fall and winter,” Zepp told the newspapers.
