Turbocharge vaccination plan against Omicron

In the three weeks or so that the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus has been known to be in circulation by way of infecting people in about 70 countries after being discovered in southern Africa and causing the first death in the UK, we have come to learn something more about its virulence, transmissibility and the efficacy of existing vaccines against infection. While early reports suggest it might cause milder symptoms and disease, we have to stir ourselves out of complacency because of the dropping numbers of new cases and active cases of the Delta strain in India.

Studies have tended to show that Omicron is three to four times more transmissible than Delta, which should be sufficient to warn us, going by past pandemic experience, about what may happen if Omicron infections explode from tens of infections to thousands and millions. If Indian healthcare systems are not to get overwhelmed once again by the possible spread of Omicron, it would be best to review the vaccination policy right now and decide quickly not only on inoculating those below 18 but also to take the call on booster doses for those who have taken both jabs from early this year but face waning protection.

India may have progressed to the extent of inoculating around 55 per cent of an eligible 90-crore people with one dose and just over 30 per cent with two doses. The procurement and logistical hurdles the Centre faced may have been cleared but there is still a long way to go in the battle against complacency, vaccine resistance and misplaced belief in Indians being less vulnerable. The Centre has initiated the vaccination programme, which as we know remains the best weapon against the coronaviruses, and it must continue to be the sole and dynamic provider of the vaccine to all the population. All of us are not protected until the last one is protected.

What the United Kingdom is facing should serve as a case study as it is a problem that goes way beyond the political as in Boris Johnson facing opprobrium in the face of the clamping of new Omicron restrictions even as the British PM fights off sharp criticism of his antics as well as those of his Cabinet in defying lockdown regulations last year to run a quiz or indulge in Whitehall parties. It must be noted that the UK, facing mathematical projections of a million Omicron cases a day and proportionate hospital admissions and possible deaths with the first one having sounded the alarm already, is on a booster jab spree.

A UK study showed that while two jabs of the Astra Zeneca/ Oxford vaccine provided almost no protection against Omicron as compared to the Delta strain, a booster jab upped efficacy against Omicron to 71 per cent. That should be a compelling reason why India must use the vaccines to stave off what could otherwise be an Omicron tsunami. However mild the symptoms and disease may prove, the danger lies in the new strain’s ability to re-infect those who have already suffered Covid and those who have been vaccinated too. Since studies also show possible benefit from mixing vaccines, it is time to ramp up procurement of Covishield, Covaxin and other vaccines and recapture the momentum of inoculating anyone and everyone who sees the wisdom of the vaccine against the virus.

If Indian healthcare systems are not to

get overwhelmed once again by the possible spread of Omicron, it would be best to review

the vaccination policy right now