Will we need a COVID booster shot?
The novel coronavirus has continued to impact our lives in many ways. Whether it is in the form of new debilitating symptoms or in the guise of new variants, it has taken a toll on all of us.
At a time like this, COVID vaccines have become the need of the hour. However, recent cases of breakthrough infections only add to the doubts and scepticisms around the vaccines. Experts have begun to discuss the need for a third COVID boost dose, which could work towards strengthening the efficacy.
What is a booster shot?
While vaccines are the only practical solution to the COVID crisis, it has been observed that the vaccines are not wholly effective against the new emerging variants and continue to leave certain loopholes in between.
That said, scientists and experts are expanding the horizon and are in talks to develop a ‘booster’ or a third COVID vaccine dose, to ensure higher efficacy. A booster shot is an additional dose of vaccine that provides better protection against the virus. This is to re-expose a person's immune system to the immunizing antigen, the memory of which (after the previous dose) could have been lost over a period of time.
Will a COVID booster shot be necessary?
Given that new variants tend to arise every now and then, fully vaccinated individuals continue to remain at risk. Even after receiving two doses of the vaccine, the mutations only make it less effective.
In an interview, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Dr Randeep Guleria said, "It seems that we probably need the booster dose of vaccines as with the passage of time the immunity tends to fall. There is waning immunity. We would like to have a booster dose that will cover for various emerging variants."
"We will have second-generation vaccines which would be better in terms of the immunity they give, covering of the new variants and having a better overall efficacy. Trails of booster vaccine shots are already going on," he added.
When will India have its booster shots?
As per Dr. Guleria, "You will probably need a booster dose till the end of this year. But that's only once the population is vaccinated, then the next step will be to administer a booster dose."
Earlier, Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist had said that there is not enough scientific proof to suggest that a COVID booster shot may prove effective after COVID-19 vaccination.
“We do not have the information that’s necessary to make the recommendation on whether or not a booster will be needed," Swaminathan said.
According to Swaminathan, such a call is "premature" while the most vulnerable in the society have yet not received their first course of vaccination.
India's Bharat Biotech is currently carrying out the trials for booster shots
The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) had granted the permission to conduct the clinical trials for the third booster shot to Bharat Biotech in April.
According to reports, while the results of the first trial, conducted in May, will come in August, results for the second trial are expected to come by November 2021.