Coronavirus infections are on the rise across Europe, including in countries with high vaccination rates. This, in turn, has accelerated the debate on whether to introduce a third dose. Countries like Belgium, with a 74% vaccination rate, recorded an incidence of 960 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and this week have announced that all the population will be eligible for a third jab. On the other hand, in Spain, which for now registers much lower infection figures, the third dose will be applied to the over-60s and healthcare staff. The criteria, as has been happening throughout the pandemic, vary, therefore, depending on each country's health authorities and its epidemiological situation, especially until European regulators issue a clear verdict. At the moment, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) accepts the third dose will have to be widely administered, but experts are still working out what would be the best timing.

Emmanuel Macron had summoned the French at eight o'clock in the evening. He had scheduled an appearance, broadcast live on the country's radio and television stations, to share a few messages with the population: mainly on the monitoring of the epidemiological situation in France, now that the pandemic is resurgent in some parts of Europe, and also on the economic recovery after months of darkness linked to covid-19. However, probably the most outstanding announcement of Macron served to confirm his commitment to nuclear energy: the politician born in Amiens assured that - as already advanced - France will build new reactors for the first time in decades.

The Public Health Commission, made up of the Ministry of Health and the autonomous communities, has approved this Tuesday the administration of a third dose of the vaccine against the coronavirus to people with severe immunosuppression. These are cases in which there is a high risk of an inadequate immune response in the conventional vaccination schedule. Specifically, this additional dose is designed to complete the vaccination schedule for people with solid organ transplants, recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplants and those who are being treated with anti-CD20 drugs.

The WHO this week called for no third dose - or booster or reminder dose - until at least 10 per cent of the world's population is vaccinated. Even so, countries such as Israel have already started injecting it into immunocompromised patients and people over 60, and France and Germany announced Thursday that they will also give it to the elderly and the most vulnerable. Spain is also considering this option: the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, said that "everything indicates that the third dose will have to be administered" - although she did not specify whether to certain groups or to the general population - and the Secretary of Public Health of the Generalitat, Carmen Cabezas, said that they are studying giving a third injection to immunocompromised patients, such as transplant recipients or people undergoing cancer treatment, for example. But is a third dose really necessary to have immunity against covid?