Health Minister Carolina Darias announced that the Public Health Commission has decided that there will be a fourth dose of COVID vaccine “for the entire population”. So far, vaccine plans have only affected the elderly and “high-risk” patients. With this decision, the situation changes again and the Ministry prepares to vaccinate everyone again. Why is this decision being made now?

When? How? Who? The minister was unable to set the procedures or the date beyond the announcement that it would affect the entire population. Yes, he said, “the vaccine considered possible is expected to arrive in the fall, as with the contracts we have signed with pharmaceutical companies, by then we expect new vaccines adapted to the variants.”

some context. Already in January of this year, the Public Health Commission has already recommended a fourth injection of the vaccine to the “very high risk” population (immunosuppressed, transplant recipients, immunochromosome cancer patients, etc.). This vaccine would be five months after his last vaccination. On the other hand, both the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Center for Disease Control have approved this booster dose for those over 80 years old.

However, as Marco Cavaleri, head of vaccines for the European Medicines Agency (EMA), explained in February: “While the use of additional booster doses is part of contingency plans, repeated vaccinations at short intervals do not represent a sustainable long-term strategy. So much so The EMA has already declared that it does not need a fourth generalized dose (profiled by the third dose).

What changed? Not open. But in the absence of reports and arguments behind the decision to be made public, we can’t say it came as a surprise either. Spain (and the European Union as a whole) has committed millions of vaccines. There is no doubt that the fourth dose provides an immunological boost; But experts debate whether this extra is necessary.

Regardless, the doubts are not limited to this. Spain has been characterized by a high level of vaccination and the consequent maintenance of stricter restrictions; But if the situation continues as it is now (and the coronavirus is almost absent from the public debate anymore), the future of this fourth dose is not entirely clear.