The Department of Health should have started yesterday to assign appointments for the flu vaccination and the second booster against the covid for the under 60s without health problems. These are vaccines not recommended by the health authorities for this population group, but which have been placed on the market, among other things, due to the availability of doses. In reality, yesterday’s telematic request system (via citasalut.gencat.cat and lamevasalut.gencat.cat) was not set up for the management of the new vaccine offer. In general, it has not granted appointments to those under 60 (with the message: “For this reason, you cannot request the flu or covid-19 vaccination”), and in some cases it has assigned only one day without the possibility of choosing.
In any case, people called to get vaccinated with the second anticovid booster dose (over 60, people with health conditions at risk or with immunosuppression, pregnant women and health and social care workers), the first vaccine adapted to the new variants, have he did not respond enthusiastically.
Experts allude to vaccine fatigue as one reason for the spectacular decline
In Spain, 94% of the population over the age of 60 has administered the first memory stick, but only 53% take the second, despite the insistent recommendations of specialists and health authorities. Vaccine fatigue is one reason experts allude to explaining the spectacular decline. A paradigm shift that is observed above all in the 60-69 age group: 94.31% received the third dose but only 39.77% opted for the fourth.
Taking this trend into account, one gets the impression that the Ministry of Health’s offer –not a recommendation– of a fourth covid and flu dose for the under 60s– will have very limited demand.
The theoretical start of this vaccination coincided yesterday with the closure of the vaccination point of the Fira de Barcelona, which has been operating in the test phase since April 2021 and continuously since May 4th. Since last fall, the center has acted as a complement to primary care centers, which have taken over vaccination. 1.4 million doses were administered in it and the daily record was recorded on July 22, 2021: 12,200 bites. At the beginning of January, Salut will create the CAP Casernes (Sant Andreu) as a new complementary vaccination point in Barcelona.
