Covid-19 Stiko recommends second corona booster for people over 60

Berlin · Until now, the Stiko has hesitated to extend its recommendation for the second Corona booster - this has now changed. Meanwhile, the EU Medicines Agency is reviewing a new Corona vaccine: Skycovion.

  In future, the Stiko will also recommend a second booster against the corona virus for people over 60. Photo: Daniel Karmann/dpa

In future, the Stiko will also recommend a second booster against the corona virus for people over 60. Photo: Daniel Karmann/dpa

Foto: dpa/Daniel Karmann

The Standing Committee on Vaccination (Stiko) now officially recommends a second Corona booster vaccination for people aged 60 and older. People in this age group and aged five years and older with an increased risk of severe courses of Covid-19 due to an underlying disease should receive another booster, a statement from the panel said.

The Stiko is expanding its previous recommendation "with the primary aim of further protecting particularly at-risk individuals from severe covid-19 disease and covid-19-related deaths".

The further booster, preferably with an mRNA vaccine, is recommended after "three immunological events" - for example after basic immunisation and first booster vaccination or basic immunisation and Sars-CoV-2 infection. As a rule, the condition for the second booster vaccination after 60 is that the first booster vaccination or the last Corona infection was at least six months ago. Only in justified individual cases could the interval be reduced to four months, according to the Stiko.

So far, the Stiko had already recommended the second booster to the following groups: People over 70 years of age, people in care facilities, people with immunodeficiency and people at increased risk for severe covid-19 courses from five years onwards, as well as employees in medical institutions and care facilities.

Now the panel stressed that a second booster vaccination in the expanded group would "continue to achieve a very high level of protection against severe courses of covid 19" for these people. The risk groups mentioned should therefore not wait for a vaccine adapted to the Omikron variant and postpone vaccination, it said.

Lauterbach welcomes Stiko recommendation

On Monday, the "Bild" newspaper had already reported that an extension of the recommendation for the second booster for people over 60 was to come. Now the Stiko officially followed previous calls by the EU authorities ECDC and EMA that the member states should offer second boosters already from the age of 60. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had also repeatedly brought up the idea of a second booster for broader population groups.

Lauterbach now told the news portal "t-online" that he was glad that the Stiko had taken this important and, in his view, overdue step. "I definitely advise citizens over 60 to follow the Stiko's advice and not wait for the new vaccines." Still, he said, the case and death rates are too high. The vaccines available in Germany, however, reliably protect against death and severe progression.

The new recommendation also explicitly states that healthy people under 60 years of age should not be given a booster for the time being. "According to current knowledge, this group of people would not benefit significantly from an additional vaccine dose." An exception would be staff in medical facilities and nursing homes, for whom the second booster is already recommended.

People who have already had four "immunological events" within a certain interval are also not recommended another booster vaccination. However, in the case of those at particular risk, such as the very elderly, it could be decided on an individual basis whether a further vaccine dose might be useful due to a decline in the immune system's performance.

Stiko also for Eisnatz from Novavax

In the updated Stiko recommendation, the committee also advocates the use of the protein vaccine from Novavax for basic immunisation for adolescents from 12 years of age - previously it was only recommended from 18 years of age.

In addition, the Stiko now recommends the antibody preparation Evusheld as a preventive measure for particularly vulnerable groups from 12 years of age in addition to vaccination. These include people with immunodeficiency, "in whom the absence of a protective immune response is to be expected even after several doses of vaccine". The recommendation applies to people who cannot be vaccinated against Covid-19 for certain reasons and who also have risk factors for severe disease progression. Evusheld consists of two Sars-CoV-2 neutralising antibodies and can be injected into the muscle.

WHO Vaccination Council now in favour of second Corona booster at older ages

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Independent Immunisation Council has for the first time recommended the administration of a second Corona booster vaccination for older people. The chair of the council (Sage), Alejandro Cravioto, stressed in Geneva on Thursday that this did not mean a recommendation for regular boosters every four to six months.

The vaccination council left the exact age group open in its recommendation. Each country would have to decide for itself at what age it wanted to offer second booster vaccinations. Ideally, they should be given four to six months after the first booster vaccination. In addition, the Vaccination Council recommends second boosters for health workers of all ages, as well as people with weakened immune systems or other diseases that increase the risk of severe illness after corona infection.

EU medicines agency reviews new corona vaccine Skycovion

South Korean company SK Bioscience has developed a new corona vaccine. The EU Medicines Agency (EMA) has already started the review process. The vaccine is called Skycovion. An application for marketing authorisation has been submitted, the EMA announced in Amsterdam. The company has submitted data on efficacy against the coronavirus as well as on safety and quality.

The EMA experts are now reviewing the data and will then decide on a recommendation for conditional marketing authorisation. After a positive recommendation by the EMA, the EU Commission still has to give its approval - but that is considered a formality.

According to the EMA, the vaccine contains tiny particles of the spike protein of the virus. After vaccination, the body is supposed to recognise these proteins as foreign bodies and produce antigens and T-cells. In the case of an infection with the coronavirus, the immune system is supposed to recognise the spike proteins and fight the virus. It is unclear to what extent this vaccine also protects against the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Currently, six vaccines against the coronavirus are licensed in the EU. Two of these preparations have also been adapted to variants of the virus. However, the EMA experts are still reviewing the data of these adapted preparations. It is not yet clear when the decision will be made.

(Original text: dpa, Translation: Mareike Graepel)
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