Sabine Stordeur, co-responsible for the vaccination task force, was the guest of Matin Première this Thursday. The opportunity to take stock of the fourth dose of vaccine against Covid-19, in particular for the elderly. The vaccination task force indeed received this Wednesday the conclusions of the Superior Health Council concerning this fourth dose.
The members of the taskforce then met in the evening to discuss it and prepare an opinion that they will submit to the politicians next week. And this in view of the interministerial conference of this Wednesday, April 20.
From when should this fourth dose be accessible to elderly people at risk and to the rest of the population? “We had already established several scenarios and the preferred scenario was mainly for the administration of the fourth dose at the beginning of the fall or in fact at the end of the summer.“, answers Sabine Stordor.
She clarifies: “It is true that the epidemiological situation is very favorable at the moment and we have no prospect of overloading the hospital environment or intensive care services. Nevertheless, we still find that the people who are hospitalized are mostly very old people who suffer from comorbidities.“
A fourth dose for the oldest before summer
In this context, “the Superior Health Council, taking into account all of these factors, recommended not systematically administering a fourth dose to very old people aged 80 and over before the summer. But good to do it on an individual basis, precisely according to the fragility of certain people or the weight of certain comorbiditiesThis proposal will be submitted to the Interministerial Conference (CIM) Public Health next Wednesday. It is the CIM that will make the final decision.
“It is the age criterion that has been retainedsummarizes the co-head of the vaccination task force. So for all the people who are at least 80 years old if, after discussion with their treating doctor, they feel that it would be better for them to receive a fourth dose before the summer, at that time they can go to a vaccination center.“
And in nursing homes?
The pattern is almost the same for people living in nursing homes: “There will be no routine administration to all nursing home residents. But in this case, there will be no minimum age criterion. That is to say that since people live in the community, they are often more fragile people and after discussion with their doctor or on an individual basis, they could ask to receive a fourth dose before the summer.“
In practice, the campaign should ideally start around the middle of May. “When a dose of vaccine is administered, it takes on average 10 to 15 days for the antibodies to rise significantly, which means that immune protection would be perfectly reboosted in June.“, adds Sabine Stordeur.
Why not before 80 at this point?
How to explain that Belgium is targeting 80 years and over while in France the fourth dose is administered from the age of 60? According to the co-leader of the task force, “each country has adopted an age criterion according to its own epidemiological situation. In Belgium, data from Sciensano show that hospitalizations mainly concern people who are well over 75 years old and who have on average two comorbidities. So there was no need for us to consider giving a fourth dose to a younger group. But of course, we will continue to monitor this epidemiological situation on a monthly basis. And it is possible to revise its recommendations, even before the summer.“
As for caregivers or younger people who have comorbidities, “there is no indicator, no warning signal, that these people are particularly at risk. We had therefore considered, in our preferred scenario, to open vaccination to these groups at the end of the summer, therefore before a possible epidemic wave in autumn.“.
Update on the epidemiological situation
In this mid-Aprilthe epidemiological situation remains sufficiently favorable not to be more severe in the restrictions”. But Sabine Stordeur recalls that wearing a mask remains “a good measure“, especially for “the most fragile people, when there is a population density or poor ventilation of the premises“.
Finally, she insists on “further increase third-dose vaccination coverage [qui] still remains a strong argument for maintaining this favorable situation in which we are at present“.