On his social media profile, the Minister shared a news article reporting that US authorities have decided to make booster shots available to adolescents from the age of twelve.
The German federal state of Saarland has taken a similar decision, allowing young people between twelve and 17 to get their boosters as of Monday, 3 January. Saarland has also lowered the delay between the second dose and the booster shot down to three months.
Another German state that has taken this step is North Rhine-Westphalia. The demand for booster shots is high, both from young people themselves as well as their parents, the state’s Minister of Health Karl-Josef Laumann explained. For the time being, Germany’s Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) does not recommend booster shots for this age group. The STIKO thus continues to recommend boosters only for adults, a stance which has so far been shared by Luxembourg’s authorities as well.
However, in his tweet on Tuesday morning, Minister of Education Claude Meisch expressed his hope that young people in Luxembourg too will soon be able to have access to booster shots. According to Meisch, this would mean “more freedom” for them and increased safety in schools.
In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) referred to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant as the reason behind their decision. The FDA also pointed out that there are “practically no medical risks” associated with booster shots for young people.
In a similar way to the strategy by Luxembourg’s government, the US is also trying to keep schools open by any means necessary, even if the country just recently recorded over one million new infections in a single day.
Neither the European Medicines Agency (EMA), nor Luxembourg’s High Council for Infectious Diseases have so far issued a clear recommendation to make booster shots available to minors.
