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WHO updates guidelines on COVID-19 booster vaccination!

WHO updates guidelines on COVID-19 booster vaccination!

By م.زهير الشاعر

Published: August 21, 2022

The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization issued a recommendation on COVID-19 booster injections on Thursday.

It stated that a second injection should only be given to specific groups of people after the primary vaccination and one booster dose.

Speaking at a virtual World Health Organization press conference on the issue of vaccines, SAGE Chair Alejandro Cravioto said the organization's recommendation "is not a general recommendation to vaccinate all adults after the first booster dose."

Cravioto explained that this caution is only intended for the most vulnerable populations. The World Health Organization already recommends that all adults receive the COVID-19 vaccine – which mostly consists of two doses – plus a follow-up booster dose after four to six months.

SAGE says the second boosters should first and foremost be given to the elderly and all immunocompromised people, as well as pregnant women and those with conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart, lung, and kidney diseases.

The recommendation aims to control the pandemic and deaths among high-risk populations but is not a general recommendation to vaccinate the entire population after giving the first booster dose, as Cravioto explained.

SAGE experts noted that current booster recommendations are only for the vaccines currently available, which were designed to target the original COVID-19 strain. The advisory group stated that they do not precisely know how the novel coronavirus may evolve in the near future or the characteristics future variants might acquire, indicating that additional doses may be needed "within 4-12 months after the second booster, especially in people most at risk of severe illness and death."

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