On Thursday, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the official green light to administer booster doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine to teenagers from 12 to 17 years old.
The approval was issued over a month later than initially expected causing a patchwork of (travel) measures and conditions in the EU in the run-up to the carnival break: some countries required teenagers to have booster shots to enter, even though they had not been officially approved for that age group.
"The available evidence was sufficient to conclude that the immune response to a booster dose in adolescents would be at least equal to that in adults," EMA announced in a press release. "No new safety concerns were identified from the data available."
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The opinion was issued based on data from a clinical trial of a Pfizer booster dose in those aged 16 and over, as well as published literature and post-authorisation data and real-world evidence from the use of booster doses in young people in Israel.
It is now up to the European Commission to issue a final decision on whether the booster can be administered to teenagers.
In Belgium, Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region were waiting for official EMA advice before rolling out their booster campaign for teenagers; Flanders already decided to go ahead at the start of February.
Adolescents aged 12 to 17 in Flanders could already get a booster vaccine (without receiving an invitation) if they first signed an 'informed consent' form, which clarified that the shot was offered rather than officially recommended.
