Europe is getting ready for a COVID wave, but the campaign to stop it is off to a slow start. 

As the weather gets cooler in Europe, it looks like a new COVID-19 wave is starting to form. Public health experts warn that booster shots may not be used as often as they could be because people are tired of getting vaccines and don’t know what kinds are available.

Most infections are still caused by Omicron subvariants BA.4/5, which were the most common this summer, but newer Omicron subvariants are making up ground. Scientists are keeping an eye on hundreds of new types of Omicron, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO data released late on Wednesday showed that there were 1.5 million cases in the European Union (EU) last week, which is 8% more than the week before, even though there were a lot less tests done. Globally, case numbers continue to decline.

In the last few weeks, more people have been hospitalised in a lot of the 27-country bloc, including Britain.

Compared to the week before, almost 32% more COVID-19 patients with symptoms were admitted to hospitals in Italy, and about 21% more were admitted to intensive care.This is according to data from the independent scientific foundation Gimbe.

Over the same week, there were 45% more COVID hospitalizations in Britain than the week before.

Since September, micron-adapted vaccines have been available in Europe. Along with the first-generation vaccines, there are two types of shots that protect against the BA.1 and BA.4/5 subvariants. Only the BA.1-tailored shots have been approved in Britain.

The latest boosters have been approved by European and British officials only for a few groups of people, such as the elderly and those with weak immune systems. Public health experts say that the fact that people can “choose” which vaccine to use as a booster will likely add to the confusion.

But people are getting less and less willing to try again, which for some could be their fourth or fifth time.

Martin McKee, a professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said, “The message that it’s all over and the lack of a big publicity campaign are likely to make people less likely to get tested.”

A false sense of security

“So, all things considered, I think that participation will be quite a bit lower.”

Penny Ward, a visiting professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London, said, “Another thing that could be confusing is that a large number of people may have also had a COVID episode in the past few months.”

She also said that some people may think, wrongly, that if they had a full primary course and then got COVID, that means they are immune.

According to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, about 40 million doses of vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) have been sent to member states since the roll-out of new vaccines began in the European Union on September 5. (ECDC).

ECDC data showed that only 1 million to 1.4 million vaccine doses were given each week in the EU in September, compared to 6 to 10 million per week during the same time last year.

People may think the pandemic is over, which gives them a false sense of security and could be the biggest problem.

Adam Finn, chair of ETAGE, an expert group that advises the WHO on vaccine-preventable diseases in Europe, said, “There must be some complacency in the fact that life seems to have gone back to normal, at least when it comes to COVID, and people now have other worries about money and war.”

He also said that some lawmakers were also letting things slide.

The Gimbe Science Foundation in Italy said that the government, which will soon be replaced by the results of an election, was not ready for the fall-winter season. They also pointed out that a report on how the government handled the pandemic had been stopped from being published.

The Health Ministry didn’t say anything.

Also, British officials warned last week that flu and COVID-19 could spread again, which would put even more pressure on the National Health Service (NHS).