I do think the benefit is less clear for younger, healthy people. And I do generally agree with the European approach at focusing on 50+ year olds or the booster campaign; that's really where the benefit is going to be felt most. However, I also think anyone under 50 should also be able to get a booster whenever they want; there's nothing to be gained by restricting access any more than there would be to restrict access to flu vaccines. That policy by some European governments is simply asinine.
And I also think we're potentially in for a bit of a reckoning if the 50+ population doesn't stay up to date with vaccines. Last I saw, only about 5% of Americans have bothered to get the bivalent booster, which means the vast majority of 50+ year olds (which make up about 30% of the population) haven't gotten it. Out of date vaccines still offer decent protection against severe disease, but eventually that wanes too. If we get to the point where we're only seeing mediocre protection against severe disease from old vaccinations and COVID is still flying through the population, there's going to be a pretty large population that's at risk of filling up hospitals.
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