‘NO NEED FOR COVID BOOSTER DOSES’

Will a booster shot provide the turbocharge for Covid immunity that India is looking for? Maybe in an ideal situation where most people are fully vaccinated but not when less than a quarter of the adult population has received both doses, say experts.

As the global debate on booster shots gathers momentum, several scientists here said the priority must be to ensure that more people are inoculated with at least their first jab. Immunologist Satyajit Rath said that less than 15 per cent of Indian adults have been vaccinated with two doses, and this clearly means that all Indians ‘who are more vulnerable to infection’ have not yet necessarily gotten two doses. “I therefore think that it is ethically premature to begin planning a third dose to a fortunate category of people at this stage,” Rath, from New Delhi’s National Institute of Immunology (NII), said.