A top official at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has warned that countries cannot “booster” their way out of the Covid crisis.
Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccine strategy at the EMA, a European Union regulator, warned that frequent Covid-19 booster shots could adversely impact the immune response by overloading the system.
He said at a press briefing Tuesday that boosters “can be done once, or maybe twice, but it’s not something that we can think should be repeated constantly.”
“We need to think about how we can transition from the current pandemic setting to a more endemic setting,” he added.
Mr Cavaleri’s warning comes as it is increasingly being recognised that Omicron seems a milder Covid variant which is not filling up the ICUs. This week, the Spanish authorities are finalizing plans to begin treating Covid-19 surveillance in the same manner as it would the flu.
Using repeat booster doses every four months could eventually weaken the immune response and tire out people, the EMA said, arguing that booster programs should be tied to the onset of the cold season in each hemisphere, as happens with influenza vaccination strategies.
The EU regulator also told the briefing that oral and intravenous antivirals, such as Paxlovid and Remdesivir, continue to maintain their efficacy against the Omicron variant.
While Pfizer and other vaccine producers have said it hopes to deliver a new vaccine booster in March, the EMA said a new vaccine needed to go through an approval process of about three to four months.