Vaccine candidates have exceeded expectations of efficacy and booster shots to remedy shortlived vaccine-derived immunity could not be required, Dr Gagandeep Kang, clinical scientist, vaccine specialist and professor at the division of gastrointestinal sciences, Christian Medical College, Vellore, told FE.
“It’s feasible that we might not need new vaccine shots unless the virus changes a lot. But I don’t think that it is going to be an annual shot, based on what we currently know,” she mentioned.
Kang is clear that the complete populace demands to be inoculated.
“The virus will not magically stop circulating the minute you get 60% of the population infected or vaccinated. A reduction in transmission is going to come from vaccinating young people. It’s not going to come from vaccinating the elderly,” she mentioned.
Till the time the public well being programme has to tackle the pandemic, the government should give indemnity to vaccine-makers and other folks in the vaccine provide-chain, Kang mentioned, adding some level of indemnification was essential to have access to the vaccines.
She stressed the have to have to involve the private sector in the inoculation course of action, pointing out it was drastically more complex than something attempted in the previous. “My worry is we’re not involving the private sector at all, at least, I’m not hearing about it,” she mentioned. Also, the government should appoint independent monitoring panels for the roll out, she explained.
Kang believes India demands more granular sero-surveys to establish how SARS CoV-2 is spreading. “We only know the number of tests done and tests that were positive. Trying to make sense of numbers can only happen with sero-survey information. It would be very valuable if we could understand why the tests were done, were they done to screen contacts or to make a diagnoses,” she observed.
However, she believes vaccines will not lead to eradication of the virus. “It would take humongous efforts for us to think about being able to eradicate this virus.
I don’t think we are ready for that strategy right now. It is potentially feasible; some countries have shown us that they can do it for certain kinds of settings. But, it also would require an incredible amount of testing and isolation,” Kang observed.