The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has now purchased hundreds of thousands more flu vaccines than last year. Then more than 4 million were put in, now there are almost 4.7 million. This is because the interest in the jab has increased since the corona pandemic, but the increasing aging of the population also plays a role.
In addition, the Health Council will also issue advice on a possible expansion of the target group for the jab. Now it consists of people aged 60 years and older and people with certain conditions.
Shortage
About 6 million people are called by their GP every autumn. The turnout for vaccination has always been around 50 percent in recent years. Yet last year, at the start of the vaccination campaign and in the middle of corona, there was a threat of a shortage of flu shots because more people suddenly became interested.
That is why 700,000 extra vaccines were purchased at the time. Healthy people aged 60 to 69 were also asked not to immediately make an appointment for vaccination and to give priority to the vulnerable. In the end, anyone who wanted to could get the flu shot. There were even vaccines left over, a spokesperson told ANP news agency.
To prevent impending shortages this year, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport has decided that vaccines should be available for 75 percent of the target group. The institute also looked at the results of a poll into likely interest in this year’s flu shot.
Research into flu shot in combination with corona vaccine
Radboudumc in Nijmegen is currently conducting research into the flu shot in combination with the corona vaccine. It is possible that the two different shots can reinforce each other, as the flu shot also seems to offer some form of protection against the corona virus.
“Do the vaccines reinforce each other or not? Which order of vaccination produces the most antibodies against the coronavirus? And can we give the injections at the same time, or should there be a certain period in between? These are questions we want answers to,” says professor of internal medicine Mihai Netea, who is leading the research the AD.
The study has no consequences for the flu shot that will be given this fall. The first results of the study are expected in the spring.
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By: Editors
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