Chorus grows for COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for all adults

Representative image.

An expert group on immunisation under the Union health ministry is yet to decide on recommending COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for all people above the age of 18, but scientists say the Centre should allow all willing adults to take the additional dose.

Giving boosters to those above 18, according to virologists and epidemiologists, will reduce the transmission of the virus and enhance protection against the disease.

As of now, booster or precautionary doses are offered only to healthcare and frontline workers and those above 60 years, provided nine months have lapsed after their second dose.

Last week, scientists at the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology in Pune said that given that the third dose can considerably raise antibody levels against SARS-CoV-2, all adults should get it.

The chorus has grown louder as most scientists believe that Omicron may not be the last virus variant and the pathogen will now keep circulating in varied population groups across countries.

This view got an impetus as the XE variant, a combination of BA.1 and BA.2 sub-types of Omicron, recently caught the attention of the World Health Organization and is being monitored for its implications on public health.

Also read I New coronavirus variant XE: Does India need to worry?

Under consideration

Senior health ministry officials said some discussions on booster or precaution doses for all adults have already taken place in recent meetings of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 and the COVID-19 group under the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation.

“A decision will depend on rigorous evaluation of scientific data and assessment of COVID-19 vaccines,” an official said.

Another official said there is no dearth of vaccine doses in India.

“We have enough stocks of both Covaxin and Covishield and with considerable expansion of the production line, we do not see a problem in procuring enough doses required to vaccinate all adults with a third dose once it is approved,” the official said.

Seasonal flu

Senior virologist Dr Shahid Jameel pointed out that the existing COVID-19 vaccines don’t protect very well – their efficacy is variable and falls fairly quickly against symptomatic infection.

“But all vaccines protect very well from severe disease and mortality,” he said. “Giving boosters to all willing adults, provided there are sufficient stocks, will prolong protection from infection, reduce transmission and further boost protection against disease,” Jameel said.

He said the goal should be to take COVID-19 mortality down to seasonal flu levels.

Also read I National Institute of Virology needs AI and high-performance computing tools; confident of ICMR support: Director Priya Abraham

“That is already happening in several European countries that are opening up,” he said.

Dr Gopi Krishna Yedlapati, a consultant interventional pulmonologist at Yashoda Hospitals in Hyderabad, stressed that vaccines are the best hope of ending the pandemic.

State data

Dr Rahul Pandit, director of intensive care at Fortis Hospitals in Mumbai, who is also a member of the National Task Force appointed by the Supreme Court and a part of the Maharashtra government’s COVID-19 task force, said that an additional dose of vaccine will be necessary for all adults.

“However, we need to get state data about when it should be offered,” he emphasised.

India has administered over 1.85 billion vaccine doses, including 22.7 million precautionary doses, according to the health ministry’s CoWIN website.

More than 163.6 million doses provided by the Central government are available with the states and Union Territories, the health ministry said in a statement on April 8.