New Delhi, Jan 17 (FN Bureau) The countrywide vaccination drive against Covid-19 has entered the next phase where people above 60, healthcare and frontline workers are being inoculated with the precaution dose of existing vaccines in the programme. However, the veracity of the move has left the medical fraternity divided as many believe that the current strategy is unlikely to control the disease spread. While reiterating that the current vaccines provide a high level of protection against severe disease and death caused by Variants Of Concern (VOC), the top doctors told UNI that new vaccines must be developed which can prevent infection and transmission of the viral infection. Dr Col Vijay Dutta, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Delhi said the spread of Omicron proved that the SARS-CoV-2 is expected to evolve continuously and it is prudent that new vaccines must be developed in addition to providing people with booster doses. Dr Akshay Budhraja, Senior Consultant, Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at Aakash Healthcare, Delhi also said the frequent mutations in the coronavirus make it hard to rely on the boosters of the same vaccines administered earlier.
“Soon this disease will become endemic and just like the influenza vaccine, the coronavirus vaccine needs to be updated annually or semi-annually as per the dominant strain in that particular region or country,” he added. Dr Alpana Razdan, Microbiologist, and Vice President at Genestrings Diagnostic, Delhi said that new vaccines must be made available to the general public. “Although the first COVID 19 vaccines have been very effective there is a lot of room for improvement. With improved vaccines, we may be able to bolster the effectiveness of global vaccination and make sure that people everywhere in the world, including children and those who are clinically vulnerable, are protected,” she added. Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, scientific advisor to Indian Medical Association’s National Task Force for Covid-19 said that it’s unclear what objective the government is trying to achieve with administering booster shots of the same vaccines since their two doses have proven to be effective in reducing death and hospitalization but failed to prevent the transmission of disease.
“Evidence from the ground clearly shows that the two doses of vaccines continue to remain effective on the primary outcomes of taking the jabs i.e reducing hospitalization and deaths. That aspect of vaccine protection has not waned. However, we know that all COVID vaccines failed to prevent transmission after a certain period. Now, data from Europe and the US shows that despite getting boosters, people are contracting the virus. The Faroe Islands report where 64% of recently Pfizer boosted healthcare workers developed symptomatic Omicron infection, is a case in point,” he explained. Jayadevan also pointed out that the vaccines have effectively reduced organ damage and deaths to near-zero levels after two doses and it is unlikely to further reduce this already low death rate after the third dose. “At this point, we should ask ourselves; what more specifically are we going to achieve with the administration of additional doses of the same vaccines? Ongoing studies could tell us that in the future,” he asked.