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The creators of the world’s most used COVID-19 vaccine acknowledged on Tuesday that continuous delivery of booster doses twice a year is “unsustainable.”
Talk to the Telegraph In an interview on Tuesday, Andrew Pollard, one of the creators of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 Shot, said, “We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months.”
Policy makers should try to “target the vulnerable” rather than give doses to people over the age of 12, said Polard, head of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunity. Stated. More data needs to be collected about “whether vulnerable people need additional doses, when and how often”, he continued.
This is because several countries, including Israel, have begun or are considering deploying a fourth vaccination. On Monday, Israeli authorities began providing doses to all healthcare workers and individuals over the age of 60.
In Israel, booster doses are associated with an individual’s COVID-19 vaccine passport known as the “Green Pass” used to enter a particular business. Authorities announced last year that the Green Pass will expire if it does not receive booster immunity within six months of the second initial vaccination.
Germany’s Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told public broadcaster ZDF in late December that Germans “need a fourth vaccination” for COVID-19 in the coming months. Until 2023.
“At some point, society has to be open. When we open, there is a time when infectious diseases will skyrocket, so winter is probably not the best time,” Polard said in an interview on Tuesday. rice field. “But it’s a decision of policy makers, not scientists. Our approach needs to be switched to depend on vaccines and boosters. The biggest risk is still unvaccinated.”
He added that the United Kingdom should not blindly follow the booster policy implemented or currently proposed in Germany, Israel.
Since the first detection of a highly mutated variant in November, World Health Organization data show that it has spread rapidly and has emerged in at least 128 countries, with many countries and COVID-related. It presents a dilemma to those who are about to resume their economy and life in nearly two years. confusion.
However, the Omicron variant affects the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants, causing “decoupling” in several places between a surge in case numbers and a decline in mortality. More evidence is emerging, WHO officials said Tuesday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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