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LAST UPDATE | 1 Sep 2022
COVID-19 VACCINES BY Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna adapted to provide broader protection against the Omicron variant have been approved by the EU’s drug regulator.
The so-called “bivalent” vaccines target both the original virus that emerged in in 2019 and the BA.1 subvariant of Omicron, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said.
The vaccines are not updated for the newer and more infectious BA.4 and BA.5 types that have become dominant worldwide. A decision on a jab to counter those variants is expected within weeks.
The EMA said that the two jabs backed for people aged 12 and above today were the “first adapted Covid-19 booster vaccines recommended for approval in the EU”.
“These vaccines are adapted versions of the original vaccines Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTech) and Spikevax (Moderna) to target the Omicron BA.1 subvariant in addition to the original strain of SARS-CoV-2,” it said.
European nations have been keen to rush through the new generation of jabs so they can start booster campaigns ahead of a feared Covid surge in the latter part of this year.
EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides hailed the decision as “important to protect Europeans against the likely risk of autumn and winter waves of infections”.
“We need to be ready to face another winter with Covid-19,” she said in a statement.
The EMA said that studies showed that the new jabs could “trigger strong immune responses” against Covid.
It said that “in particular, they were more effective at triggering immune responses against the BA.1 subvariant than the original vaccines”.
New strains
The EU’s Kyriakides said she expected the EMA to rule on vaccines adapted for the now-dominant BA.4 and 5 strains “in the coming weeks”.
Pfizer recently applied for authorisation for a vaccine adapted against the two newer types.
The US authorised its first anti-Omicron vaccines yesterday, approving Pfizer and Moderna jabs for the BA.4 and BA.5 strains.
Britain authorised the Moderna vaccine for the BA.1 type in mid-August.
The 27-nation EU is currently still using the same Covid-19 vaccines that were approved nearly two years ago for use against the original strain.
While they offer some protection against newer variants, the race has been on to produce jabs that also target the milder but more infectious Omicron strains.
Boosters in Ireland
Appointments have today opened in Ireland for people aged from 12 to 49 years-old with long term health conditions and healthcare workers to book their next Covid-19 booster vaccine.
Those who have long-term conditions – such as diabetes, asthma or heart disease – are being encouraged to come forward for their second booster.
This second booster vaccine will be available to those who have already received their initial vaccine course and one booster dose.
The latest shot is available once it has been four months since the person’s last Covid-19 vaccine or since they they were last infected with the virus
People can book an appointment online for a HSE vaccination clinic or check with participating GPs and pharmacies to receive their dose.
The HSE and Children’s Health Ireland will soon make a first booster dose available to children aged 5-11 years who are immunocompromised.
The health service said it will continue to be active over the next few weeks in its services, in the media and online, encouraging people to come forward for Covid-19 vaccines.
The HSE said it strongly urges people who have not yet received a coronavirus vaccine to consider attending a walk-in clinic or to register for an appointment.
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Mr Norris will be remembered as one of our greats .
A gentleman and a scholar.
Is this not odd, to rifle through documents from another time and publish through a modern prism? This reads like a scoop or as sensationalist, next week perhaps an expose on how women were appallingly treated for witchcraft?
@Osprey: No.
@Jimmy Wallace: You could just have left it as persecuted, Jimmy.
Lots of others were persecuted too.
Christianity is an equal opportunites persecutor.
@Osprey: Is it not odd that someone would wish that others be kept ignorant of history in an obvious attempt to push their opinions on how other people live their lives?
@Osprey: It’s called history
Right wing party did right wing things.
@Chris O’Brien: Who fox a R Ses chris. Do you…
@Chris O’Brien: It might tell us a lot about about the operation of this state.
Both FF and FG were in power during those years, with Labour in the mix too.
And yet the state’s stance on this remained the same – to try to fight to maintain its laws on persecuting the homosexual communities.
How much is any “policy” down to the government of the day, or to the permanent government of the civil service, from which it get its advice and told what it can and cannot do?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: It was a FF Minister that got rid of this law, a FG government that facilitated marriage equality and repeal of the 8th amendment but don’t let mere facts get in the way of your politically motivated rant.
@Kilkenny Proud: it was an FG and FF governments that wouldn’t legalise the sale of condoms to everyone one which would have been a huge help to dealing with HIV and it was a FG government which brought in the 8th amendment. The FF minister brought in the legalisation of homosexuality because of over a decade of fighting it through the courts in Ireland the EU and then the international court and only then after losing it they legalised it
@Kilkenny Proud: And who brought in or maintained these oppressive laws in the first place, Kilkenny Proud?
The reason these laws were repealed was because they were in breach of European human rights legislation, not that FF or FG actually wanted them repealed.
Or did you not even read this article?
So AIDS was a case against settling down and getting married? Only in Ireland
Christian fundamentalists is all ffg were..never a mention during revisionism of our recent history the influence politicians had over the people..I’d imagine if SF were in powers at the time the media would be revisiting stories such as these to showcase how backwards the country was under Them and how ffg are so progressive
@Shane Doyle: right, SF before they jumped into the bandwagon in last 10 years they were marching with rainbow flegs in Belfast
@Jimmy Wallace: 800 years of cultural control will do that to a peasant mind. It’s why we’re world leaders in begrudgery today.
Name them
What does this man want to achieve by bringing this case? What benefit does anyone get other than the lawyers and their cash.
The state are sh*tes
@lastfewchocices: Which comes first, the chicken or the egg.
Left hand shakes the right hand.
Make of that as you will.
have your say