As expected, the National Vaccination Board (NIG) adapted its recommendations for corona vaccination on Tuesday: For people over 65, people with high-risk factors and medical staff, a booster vaccination is now “urgently recommended” just six months after the second stitch, according to the Minister of Health Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) summarized.
For all other over 18-year-olds, the “booster” should already be possible six months after the second stitch, said the chairwoman of the NIG, Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt, in any case a booster vaccination should take place up to twelve months after the second stitch. Experience shows that “the vaccination protection noticeably wears off after six months,” said Mückstein, which is why all Austrians are called upon to make use of the offer. The fact that the vaccination quota of around 63 percent of the total population is generally “unsatisfactory” is shown by the recent sharp increase in the number of infections and hospitals, according to Mückstein.
Im Video: An overview of the current corona situation in Austria
The fact that vaccinated people are increasingly ending up in hospitals can be explained on the one hand by the lack of herd protection, which means that the virus circulates more strongly, but those vaccinated who end up in intensive care units are also “mainly seriously ill people who now also have Corona,” he said .
The release of the booster vaccination after six months is advisable to everyone over the age of 18, emphasized Wiedermann-Schmidt. Experts expressly advise against making the need for a refreshment dependent on the antibody status: Since there are no reliable studies on its informative value, doctors who advise patients to have antibodies determined in this way before vaccination could even have “liability consequences” if these people then forego the vaccination and get corona, warned Mückstein.
The NIG has also confirmed the vaccination recommendation for those people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and thus only received a sting: they should be refreshed “as soon as possible”, ideally one month after the first vaccination and with an mRNA Vaccine, said Wiedermann-Schmidt.
What is new is the recommendation not to use the Moderna vaccine for under 30-year-olds, as there was an increase in myocarditis in younger people worldwide after this vaccination. As far as the dose for the refreshments is concerned, according to the approval of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) at Comirnaty by Biontech / Pfizer, the same dose as for the first and second stitch is recommended, for Moderna only half the dose.
Mückstein and the NIG also called for a flu vaccination: after the absence of the influenza viruses last winter, a strong wave can be expected this year due to the increased travel activity and the lack of contact between the immune system and influenza viruses, explained virologist Monika Redlberger -Fritz from the Med-Uni Vienna.
Crisis summit in Vienna:
- In view of the increasing number of new corona infections and Covid hospital patients, the top government invites the governors to the crisis summit on Friday. In contrast to the last one, it will be an on-site meeting, for the first time under the leadership of Federal Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg (VP).
- The tightening of measures already stipulated in a step-by-step plan with increasing utilization of the intensive care units – self-tests, for example, are no longer recognized – will come into force on Monday. Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) did not rule out further regional tightening, Upper Austria would be one of the first candidates.
- The vaccination campaign will also be part of the consultations with the provincial governors. Even before the recommendation of the NIG, Vorarlberg announced yesterday after Vienna that it would offer booster vaccinations to all fully immunized patients just six months after the second bite.
Source From: Nachrichten
