Two countries are already going for a fourth Covid booster shot – Israel and Chile – and this has prompted some scientists to caution that the plan could backfire, because too many shots might cause a sort of immune system fatigue, compromising the body’s ability to fight the coronavirus.
The New York Times had even reported that people with compromised immune systems are getting unapproved fourth or fifth Covid-19 shots, despite uncertainty about their safety or effectiveness.
There’s another reason why some people want boosters. They wish to avoid even the mildest of Covid-19 symptoms: They’re worried about developing long Covid – it can persist for weeks or even months after the acute disease phase.
The symptoms include shortness of breath, cognitive dysfunction ("brain fog"), as well as fatigue. Those are the three most common.
However, there has been more than 200 symptoms that actually have been reported in patients such as chest pain or tightness, difficulty sleeping (insomnia), heart palpitations, dizziness, pins and needles, joint pain, depression and anxiety, tinnitus and earaches, feeling sick, diarrhoea, stomach aches, loss of appetite, a high temperature, cough, headaches, sore throat, changes to sense of smell or taste.
Note: Pardon the English. Malaysians' English is not what it once was!
It has been claimed that you can get long Covid from even a mild infection – and in that regard, even Akiko Iwasaki, an immunobiologist at the Yale University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute thinks booster shots may be justifiable.
“Once a year – it is easier to convince people to do it. It is easier for people to remember. So, from a public health perspective, it is an ideal situation”, he added.
If we agree on the above, then booster shots are a Hobson's choice.
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