The Standing Commission on Vaccination (STIKO) will likely issue a recommendation for COVID booster shots for all adults in Germany, according to boss Thomas Mertens. 

STIKO to change position on COVID booster shots for adults

All over-18s in Germany could soon be in line to receive a third booster vaccination against coronavirus, after Mertens announced that he expected STIKO to update its recommendation following a meeting on Wednesday. 

Speaking on ZDF Talkshow on Tuesday evening, Mertens said that the commission would soon recommend booster vaccinations for all people aged 18 or over. Previously, STIKO has only recommended the shot for people aged over 70, residents of nursing homes, and medical and nursing staff in the healthcare system. 

According to Mertens, only around 11 percent of people over the age of 60 have so far received a booster vaccination. 

German government recommends booster vaccinations for all

The German government previously went ahead of STIKO and advised all adults in Germany to get a booster jab, with particular emphasis placed on at-risk people: those over the age of 60, care home residents, and medical staff and carers. The general advice is to get the shot six months after the last dose, although in the case of a Johnson & Johnson vaccine this is reduced to four weeks. 

Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn also said that everyone should be able to get a booster shot even if the six months have not yet elapsed. In a letter to all doctors in Germany, he wrote that the six-month rule was a “temporal guideline, which of course cannot be adhered to on a daily basis… You can therefore vaccinate every patient over the age of 18… promptly and before the end of the six months, at your own discretion.” 

The Ministry of Health explained that this guidance was to ensure that patients were not turned away when asking for their booster shots a little ahead of the six-month interval, which apparently has happened “too often”. 

Doctors and patient advocates sceptical of plans

However, the plans have come in for some criticism from general practitioners and patient advocate groups. Ulrich Weigeldt, chairperson of the General Practitioner Association, told the Funke Media Group that, for healthy, younger people who are less at risk, it was “not necessary to carry out a booster vaccination after six months to the day.” 

He added that healthy patients might be receiving the shot at the expense of vulnerable individuals, and further pointed to the fact that millions of people in Germany have still not even received their first vaccination. 

Eugen Byrsch from the German Foundation for Patient Protection also called for certain population groups to be given priority when it comes to booster shots, similar to the priority groups used at the beginning of the vaccination campaign. “A prioritisation according to age, illness and occupation must be considered again,” he said.