COVID-19: Third booster dose recommendation based on speculation rather than data, experts say

Healthcare professionals will receive Covishield, a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, at a hospital in Kolkata, India, on February 1, 2021. Photo: Reuters / Rupak De Chowdhuri / File

New Delhi: According to health experts, the current recommendations are speculative, so more to see if a third anti-COVID-19 booster dose is more effective in combating the outbreak of infections in the country. I need a lot of data.

India is fighting a massive surge in COVID-19. According to Ministry of Health data updated on Sunday, the country’s total reached 1,47,88,109 due to a record increase in coronavirus infections per day, with more active cases. I will. Mark of 180,000 rupees.

Pfizer and Moderna recently announced that people who have been vaccinated with both Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna corona virus vaccine will need booster shots this year, and may need annual shots thereafter.

Earlier this month, an expert committee of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) allowed Barrat Biotech to give several volunteers a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine covaxin in a clinical trial.

Currently, people eligible for vaccination in this country are receiving the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Covacin. Both vaccines are given twice with a gap of up to 8 weeks.

Bharat Biotech proposed booster immunization 6 months after the second dose.

Experts talk about the applicability and efficacy of the third dose, especially in light of the rampant second COVID-19 wave, and determine if the third booster dose helps fight infection. He said more research is needed to do this.

Samiran Panda, director of the ICMR National AIDS Research Institute, said that if a company decides to give a third booster after two doses, it should be based on data on immunological memory.

This means what happened to the antibody concentration after the second dose and how long after it fell below the level that required a third booster.

With COVID-19 discovered in December 2019 and vaccines manufactured in April and August, I’m wondering why companies are proposing this and what the data is. Therefore, I think that there is not enough data and the suggestion for the third dose is based on speculation rather than the time that needs to elapse. Then you will have data on the number of shots you need.So the time hasn’t come yet, Panda said PTI..

He now said that when these companies were talking about boosters, the question arises about what these boosters do.

“These boosters are supposed to boost immunity to tackle the decrease in antibody levels. It has been found that antibody levels decrease after 6-9 months, mainly due to natural infections. It was a thing, “says Panda.

“For vaccinations, it’s unclear how long it will take for vaccinations to go down, as the recently launched vaccination drive is less than five months old,” he said.

India launched a vaccination drive for COVID-19 on 16 January, and on Saturday the Ministry of Health said it had received 12,25,02,790 vaccinations so far.

Dr. Gilidara R. Bab, a professor at the Indian Public Health Foundation and head of life course epidemiology, said booster doses need to be studied and confirmed to help fight disease more effectively. It was.

How long will the protection last based on what you need to decide when you need to give a booster. He said he needed to study and see if boosters could help fight the disease more effectively.

Another medical expert said a third dose could play an important role in the future, but there is currently not enough data to support this claim.

Like influenza vaccination, you may need to get a booster vaccination every year, but that assumption because the disease (COVID-19) itself is very new and less than a year after the vaccine was released. It is too early to set up. Experts say more data and research is needed.