New EMA call for vaccination on Thursday, aimed at preventing a “fourth wave” of the coronavirus pandemic.
Europe needs to close the gap between vaccinated and unvaccinated people against Covid-19 to stem a fourth wave of the pandemic, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said today, with the unvaccinated leading to increased hospitalization .
“We are recording an extremely large number of cases – including severe forms of the disease, hospitalizations and admissions to Intensive Care Units, especially among the unvaccinated,” Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccine strategy at EMA, told a news conference.
As the continent faces a new wave of pandemics, vaccination rates in some EU Member States are “unacceptably low (…) including (among) those over the age of 50 who are at risk,” Cavaleri said.
“We need to close this gap and ensure that as many people as possible are vaccinated,” he said.
The Italian health official reminded that there is no “100% effective vaccine”, which means that countries must take additional measures to limit the spread of the virus during the winter.
Many countries have taken or are planning to take measures to target the unvaccinated, with Austria recently imposing a lockdown on those who have not been vaccinated against Covid.
At the same time, efforts are underway to strengthen vaccinations and research new treatments.
Seeing the increase in the number of cases in children, the EMA plans to decide next week whether or not to approve the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years.
“Given the critical situation in many Member States,” the regulator will consider Pfizer’s new pill against Covid, which shows preliminary “promising” results.
This will allow the EMA to provide scientific recommendations to countries so that they can use them before formal approval.
The full evaluation for the approval of the pill, which can take several months, is expected to begin next week.
The drug from the drug giant Merck may be licensed until the end of the year.
Covid pills are considered to be potentially revolutionary because they are easy to take and are relatively inexpensive to protect those at risk.
The drug GlaxoSmithKline earlier today applied for a marketing authorization for monoclonal antibody therapy, an intravenous treatment also for people at high risk of Covid.
The EMA approved two new monoclonal antibody therapies last week.
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