Roundtable event on “Navigating endemic COVID: Strategies for sustained preparedness and protection in the EU”
European Parliament (Brussels, Belgium) - 16/10/2024
On 16 October 2024, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Vytenis Andriukaitis (Lithuania), hosted the COVID Transition Initiative (CTI) roundtable event on “Navigating endemic COVID: Strategies for sustained preparedness and protection in the EU” in the European Parliament. This event marked an opportunity for the CTI to present its recommendations on how to manage the current COVID endemic as an ongoing public health challenge.
MEP Andriukaitis opened the event and praised the timeliness of the discussion as EU Member States were commencing their fall COVID vaccination campaigns. He expressed his eagerness to engage further on the CTI's recommendations and to champion prevention and vaccination over the next five years, with the creation of a dedicated parliamentary intergroup.
His intervention was followed by an introduction to the COVID Transition Initiative’s mission and governance, provided by Nicola Scocchi, Partner and Head of Brussels Office at Fourtold, which supports the secretariat of the CTI. The CTI is an informal, pan-European, multi-stakeholder group that focuses on the future management of COVID-19. The group was established at the beginning of 2024 and is currently composed of ten members with medical, patient advocacy and policy backgrounds.
The event continued with an insightful keynote by Professor Jonathan Van Tam (Emeritus Professor at the University of Nottingham, independent consultant, and Member of the CTI), which brought attention to the over 3 million cases and thousands of hospitalizations in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) European Region from September 2023 to March 2024 – all while COVID vaccination rates dropped to 12% among those aged 60+. He also argued that despite COVID is nowhere near as lethal in 2024 as was the case in 2020 (thanks to vaccines, antiviral drugs and milder variants), it still represents a threat, comparable to seasonal influenza, which requires continued attention. Yet, routine COVID vaccine uptake remains considerably lower than influenza vaccination coverage. He suggested that alternating vaccine technologies could improve protection. The COVID Transition Roadmap, presented by Professor Van Tam, provides recommendations on how to tackle existing barriers and improve COVID vaccination strategies
The first panel discussion was dedicated to the “Current COVID landscape and challenges to optimal vaccination uptake”. Professor Bruno Lina (University of Lyon, France, and Member of the CTI) described the current epidemiological situation as highly complex, with the virus circulating year-round. The lack of seasonality presents considerable challenges in the best timing to roll out vaccination campaigns. In a similar line, Professor Roberta Siliquini (University of Torino, Italy, and Member of the CTI) reflected on Italy’s COVID vaccination campaign last year, which reached a coverage of only about 10%. She attributed this low uptake to several factors, including misinformation and limited vaccine options. Then, Professor Robert Flisiak (Medical University of Białystok, Poland, and Member of the CTI), continued by explaining that during the last vaccination season in Poland, vaccine uptake was below 3%, partly due to a lack of political will to address anything related to COVID. Lastly, Sandra Evans (Executive Director of the Coalition for Life Course Immunization) pointed out the lack of coherence in COVID vaccination messaging across EU Member States, particularly regarding recommendations, target populations, and timelines. This inconsistency is creating confusion among the public and hampering vaccine uptake.
In a second panel discussion on “Future-proofing the EU approach to vaccination and pandemic preparedness: the decision-makers’ perspectives”, Dr. Hanna Nohynek (Chair of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization and Chief Physician at the Unit Infectious Diseases Control and Vaccines of the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare), indicated that the WHO SAGE has developed a roadmap that remains relevant to the current situation regarding COVID, identifying main priority groups. Although these prioritizations were firmly established during the early years of the COVID pandemic, most countries have since deviated from them, making vaccination decisions primarily based on the availability of vaccines instead. She also mentioned that low- and middle-income countries still struggle to access COVID vaccines.
From an EU regulatory perspective, Dr. Marco Cavaleri (Head of Office for Health Threats and Vaccines Strategy, European Medicines Agency), emphasized that the EMA remains heavily engaged in all COVID-related matters, addressing not only vaccines but also treatments, including for long COVID. Dr. Cavaleri highlighted the importance of using scientific data to adapt COVID vaccine compositions each year in spring, in order to allow all technologies to be made available in time for the fall campaigns, and acknowledged what he considered the inevitable overlap between COVID and influenza vaccinations. Following, Dr. Wolfgang Philipp (Principal Adviser, Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, European Commission) explained that HERA is currently working towards differentiating the COVID vaccine offer via new Joint Procurement Agreements. From a pandemic response standpoint, he also emphasized the need for improved preparedness, focusing on intelligence gathering and supporting EU Member States in enhancing their surveillance and reporting capacities.
To conclude, the CTI recommendations and the event discussion provided valuable inputs to inform the EU political priorities in health that are expected to be put forward in the new EU mandate, including an increased focus on preventive health; the new strategy to support medical countermeasures against public health threats; and the European Biotech Act.