The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the use of Pfizer's vaccine as a booster dose for teenagers last week, but 12 to 17-year-olds living in the Brussels-Capital Region and Wallonia will have to wait a bit longer before they can get the shot.
After Belgium's health ministers failed to reach a country-wide agreement on offering boosters to teenagers at the start of February, Flanders decided to go ahead on its own while Brussels and Wallonia awaited official EMA advice – which came on Thursday 24 February.
"Now that there is official EMA approval, we are awaiting advice from Belgium's Superior Health Council on the boosters," Inge Neven of the Brussels Health Inspectorate told The Brussels Times. That advice is expected soon, likely before the end of this week.
"If the Council also issues a recommendation on offering booster doses to teenagers, a decision will then be made for the whole country at the Interministerial Conference (IMC) on Health, with all of Belgium's health ministers," she said.
While Neven could not give an exact timing, she estimated that a final decision could be made next week.
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In the meantime, teenagers in Flanders have been able to get a shot for nearly a month, but they will not receive an invitation and they have to sign an 'informed consent' form. This states that they are aware of the fact that Belgium has not yet recommended the booster for that age group, but merely offers it.
Informed consent could be dropped
If the IMC reaches an agreement on the shots following approval by the Superior Health Council, the need for informed consent will likely disappear.
Still, even with EMA approval, it is still possible that Belgium's Superior Health Council decides not to give booster shots to this age group – something that its Dutch equivalent did early last month. Before the EMA issued its advice, the Netherlands' Health Council decided that a booster dose would only have "very limited health gains’ for this group."
As of Wednesday 2 March, 20% of those aged 12 to 17 have received a booster dose in Belgium, while 79% are fully vaccinated, according to the latest figures by the Sciensano health institute.
