PM Modi announced Saturday that booster doses would be rolled out from 10 January. Scientific studies have found that protection wanes after the 2nd dose, and recommended boosters.
Centre is yet to recommend booster dose for Covid vaccine & CoWin neither allows registration for third dose nor issues certificate for it. But that appears to be no impediment for some.
No decision has been taken yet on whether booster shots will be given, even as healthcare workers who got fully vaccinated in February near 10 months of vaccination.
The virologists and epidemiologists underlined that booster doses of any vaccine (except live attenuated like oral polio vaccine or OPV, measles) exponentially raise antibody levels.
The findings come as UK accelerates its booster campaign in the face of the heavily mutated variant. Officials expect omicron to become the dominant variant by the middle of December.
Booster shots are like trying to stop a fire by pouring a mug of water repeatedly at one spot. Ensuring everyone is vaccinated is better in the long run.
INSACOG says low levels of neutralising antibodies from current vaccines are unlikely to be sufficient to neutralise Omicron, but adds that the 'risk of severe disease is still likely to be reduced'.
The study looked at safety, immune response and side-effects of seven vaccines — Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, Novavax, Janssen, Moderna, Valneva and Curevac.
The efficacy of the third shot was consistent across age groups and among people with pre-existing conditions, Pfizer and BioNTech said in a statement.
It is necessary to break the spell of socialist dogma on the imagination of those attracted by its Utopia as the only scientific way of progress, wrote MA Venkatarao in 1963.
While bond yields tend to fall amid low inflation & interest rate cuts, market experts say they’ve been rising due to concerns over tax collections, fiscal deficit & potential impact of US tariffs.
It is one of the most advanced long-range air defence and anti-missile radars. It has been acquired under an about USD 145-million deal signed in 2020.
To be truly functional and durable, even eternal, a state doesn’t just need a leader, a party or an ideology. It needs functional and robust institutions.
COMMENTS