There's not enough data to recommend using COVID-19 vaccine boosters, the European Union's drugs regulator said on Friday, after major EU states said they would roll out a third dose for the most vulnerable from September.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) had said in mid-July that more data was needed before it could make a recommendation on boosters, but the EU's biggest countries Germany and France are plowing ahead with plans to roll out some anyway.
That is despite a call from the World Health Organization on Wednesday for a halt to boosters until more people around the world have been vaccinated.
"It is currently too early to confirm if and when a booster dose for COVID-19 vaccines will be needed, because there is not yet enough data from vaccination campaigns and ongoing studies to understand how long protection from the vaccines will last," the EMA said on Friday.
Nevertheless, Germany intends to give boosters to immunocompromised patients, the very elderly and nursing home residents from September. France is also working on rolling out third doses to the elderly and vulnerable from next month.
After reports on Berlin and Paris' plans, a spokesperson for the European Commission said decisions on vaccinations were taken by national governments, but stressed that on boosters - as well as on other matters - the EU executive encouraged "science-based decisions in line with EMA's advice."
The EU has in recent months reserved billions of doses from several COVID-19 vaccine makers for the coming years, saying they may be needed for boosters or to fight new variants. They could also be donated to poorer nations.
The EMA said it was working with manufacturers "to discuss plans for generating data to support booster dosing." Moderna and Pfizer have been vocal in their view the world will soon need boosters to maintain high immunity levels.
The WHO is also cautious about the lack of data on boosters.
"We still don't know how, when and if there will be a need for a booster dose," a spokesperson told a news conference on Friday.
"There may be particular groups with particular medical conditions that may need additional doses, but at this stage we really call, as we have been from the beginning of vaccination, to share doses where we can," the spokesperson added.
Asked whether booster plans were in line with EU's repeated commitments to allow fair access to vaccines to everybody in the world, the Commission spokesperson did not make a direct comment.
An internal WHO document from June seen by Reuters shows the UN agency considered the use of annual boosters for the most vulnerable as the most likely scenario, but was concerned this could leave poorer nations waiting longer for access to COVID-19 vaccines.
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Friends and strangers have set up a makeshift memorial outside the home of a five-year-old boy who was found dead yesterday in Coteau-du-lac.
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The lawyer for a B.C. RCMP officer convicted of obstruction for telling a witness to delete cellphone video following the violent 2017 arrest of Dale Culver has requested a stay of proceedings.
Israel warned U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in a call Tuesday that a military operation was going to take place in Lebanon but gave no details, U.S. officials said Thursday. The same day of the call, in an attack widely blamed on Israel, thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants exploded.
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A federal law enforcement agency confirmed it's opened an investigation into Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he allegedly cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home two decades ago.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blamed the United States in part on Thursday for the surge in cartel violence terrorizing the northern state of Sinaloa which has left at least 30 people dead in the past week.
In a closely watched First Amendment rights case, a former University of Wisconsin campus chancellor who was fired after making pornographic films with his wife prepared to argue Friday for keeping his tenured teaching position even as he faces removal for unethical behavior.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh got into a heated exchange in the House of Commons on Thursday, just minutes after Singh announced his party would not be supporting the Conservatives' first non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.
The head of Via Rail repeatedly told MPs a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident, despite a similar event two years ago.
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Ontario’s Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
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British actress Florence Pugh has revealed that shaving her head for her latest movie role was a 'really bizarre' experience that sent her body 'into a bit of trauma.'
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Shohei Ohtani became the first major league player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers star going deep twice to reach the half-century mark and swiping two bags to get to 51 against the Miami Marlins on Thursday.
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For the last seven-and-half months, Toronto resident Heather McArthur has been living out what she describes as her “worst nightmare.â€
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A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Ontario Provincial Police executed a search warrant in Walkerton.
Standing up, speaking out, and showing solidarity — survivors and supporters gathered in the core to take back the night in Windsor. The city is just one of a growing list of communities that have declared intimate partner violence (IPV) an epidemic.
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SERVEONE Canada, a global procurement solution company, has begun Canadian operations in Tecumseh.
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A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester’s farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
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