India has not begun booster doses for all adults. This is after fourteen months of initiation of the vaccination campaign. Apart from this, India has nine approved vaccines in its basket. The imprudent policy for administering booster doses is putting millions of lives at risk. According to the current policy, boosters are only open to the frontline workers and those above the age of 60. Understanding that the recent surge in cases due to the detection of new variants can be a cause of concern, India should start allocating third doses for all people.
Booster Doses in Other Countries
Firstly, in most developed countries, the authorities have opened up booster shots for all above 12 years of age. Many developing and under-developed nations are also following the same path. This is not the case in India. Secondly, eligible people in India can get their booster shot only after 9 months of getting their second dose of the vaccine. The gap between the second and the third dose is comparatively much higher than in other countries. The United States is giving booster shots to its citizens two to five months following the second shot. Similarly, the time between doses in the UK, Australia, Japan, and France is two, three, six, and three months, respectively. Pakistan has started to give booster shots to healthcare workers, people who are 30 years or older and immunocompromised individuals above 12 years old. The gap has been kept at six months. Furthermore, several countries, including Israel, Chile and Sweden, Denmark are already offering the fourth dose to older adults and at-risk groups.
Status of Booster Doses in Countries administering AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine
On 8 February 2022, Australia approved a booster dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, Covidshield, for all adults. Last year in September, The UK medicines regulator approved the use of AstraZeneca as a Covid booster vaccine, opening the way for winter distribution. This year in January, Indonesia’s Food and Drug Monitoring Agency authorised the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for its booster programme.
Possibility of Next Wave
According to a recent research study by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India may be hit by the fourth Covid Wave in June. The study, which is not yet peer-reviewed, also indicates that the wave might continue up to four months, which is longer than any of the three previous waves seen by the country. Alongside this, new sub-variants have been making news in countries such as France, the USA, Brazil and Israel. China has already put 30 million people under lockdown. Last week, WHO also warned about the possibility of a new wave with an increase in cases globally. The severity of the next possible wave will massively depend on the status of the booster doses administered in the country.
Why do we need to Open Booster Doses for All
Although vaccines offer considerable protection against the virus after the second dose, the strength starts to weaken after some time. AstraZeneca-Serum Institute’s Joint venture Covidshield vaccine has been given to more than 90% of Indians. Leave aside protection against infection, studies indicate that vaccine effectiveness against death and serious diseases is reduced to less than half after 6 months. Furthermore, two large scale studies were done in Israel which started booster doses in July 2021 have shown that individuals vaccinated with booster doses are saved from severe disease and death. According to an editorial that accompanied the studies in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that COVID-19 boosters have relative effectiveness of 90% to 95% against severe disease. These numbers are for the delta variant and preliminary data reveals protection against omicron variant wanes more quickly. It makes sense to vaccinate people who were inoculated much earlier. As there are considerable chances of a new strain, booster shots help in maintaining the body’s ability to deal with it.
India started vaccinating all adults with the first dose from May 2021 and Covidshield has a gap of 3 months making it possible for these adults to get vaccinated only after May 2022. With predictions of a new wave, sometime in June, it would be disastrous to wait.
Centre says that over 17.25 cr COVID-19 vaccine doses are available with States unutilized. In December, Serum Institute, the manufacturer of Covidshield in India, said that they are reducing their capacity to half of 25 crore per month due to a lack of orders from the government. Health care professionals have previously warned of vaccines going to waste due to expiry. Although the Health Ministry can export the excess stock to prevent waste, with much of the population now waiting on the bridge, India can start giving third doses to all eligible citizens.
We are now reaching vaccination saturation for the first two doses with states such as Delhi reducing the number of vaccination centres due to a decrease in demand. Apart from that, we are compromising the lives of our own people. We have the capacity to give out third doses to all, it would be foolish to not get as many as we can get vaccinated before a new variant strikes.
Mahek Nankani is Assistant Programme Manager, The Takshashila Institution. Harshit Kukreja is Research Analyst, The Takshashila Institution. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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