Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) called upon wealthy nations to hold off on booster shots. A booster shot- is an additional jab taken post the regular 2 doses of vaccine. Countries like France, Germany, Israel and the US are mulling to entertain the idea despite WHO’s warning about vaccine inequity.
WHO’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “There is a need for an urgent reversal from the majority of vaccines going to high-income countries, to the majority going to low-income countries.”
Currently, while UAE tops the chart of being the most vaccinated country with 81% of its population fully vaccinated. The other extreme of the spectrum are countries like Haiti, Congo and Burkina Faso which have barely 0.1% of their population vaccinated according to Our World Data. With vaccine makers focusing on countries that can afford an additional shot, the widening gap between the haves and have-nots poses important questions of is a booster shot really required and who calls for a moratorium on booster shots?
With no scientific evidence or studies in favor of the need for a booster shot, it leaves room for pharma lobbies to manipulate wealthy countries fueling inequity says Dr. Giridhara R. Babu, Head, Lifecourse Epidemiology at PHFI.
“When most of the world especially middle-income countries do not have access to even 1 dose and there are more than 40-50 countries where not even 1 dose is vaccinated so not even 1% of the country is vaccinated, then is it not right to do for a booster shot especially when you don’t know if it will help or not. This is only going to create greater inequities. One must not look at this a west versus the rest issue however, we need a global collaboration to stop this else it will cause more chaos in the future,” Babu told ET NOW.
But there are also arguments that weigh in on how a certain category of individuals could benefit from a booster shot. Transplant patients’, patients with co-morbidities, people on immune suppressant medicines etc who may not develop enough anti bodies would come under those categories. They are a sub-set of patients and population who may require and benefit from a 3rd dose, adds Dr. Arvinder Soin, Chairman at Medanta Liver Institute.
Dr Bruce Aylward, Senior Advisor to the Director-General, Organizational Change at WHO makes a broader argument. “The big picture here is as a policy not to be moving forward with boosters until we get the whole world at a point where the older populations, people with comorbidities, people who are working at the front lines, are all protected to the degree possible with vaccines”
But waiting for mid & lower income countries across the world to vaccinate at least half its population assuming that the pandemic won’t end till 60-70% of the world population is vaccinated is a myopic view according to Dr. Soin.
“Let’s look at it in this way, where if they’ve had 2 shots then definitely the extra shots should be donated to countries where they haven’t vaccinated enough people. So those with no vaccination should have one shot and those with 1 vaccine should get 2 and only then the 3rd shot should be considered. But with the growing sentiment of anti-vaxer in vaccine rich countries, holding on to those vaccine will render them useless. So, using it as a 3rd dose only seems appropriate” Dr Soin added.
