A leading health expert who had helped create the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine said Tuesday that giving everyone in the world booster shots multiple times a year is simply not feasible.
He took pains to stress the "need to target the vulnerable" going forward, rather than administering doses to everyone age 12 and older.
More data is needed to ascertain "whether, when and how often those who are vulnerable will need additional doses", he added.
Given the many unknowns with Omicron, methinks, booster programs with existing vaccines are only buying time for scientists to learn more about what works and what doesn't.
Still, Israel has begun its rollout of a fourth vaccine dose, offering it to all medical workers and people 60 and older. Germany is already contemplating the same – in late December, its Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told public broadcaster ZDF that Germans "will need a fourth vaccination" against Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the UK is rolling out third shots to healthy people 18 and older, and at-risk people 16 and older.
As Pollard rightly pointed out: "And remember that, today, less than 10% of people in low-income countries have even had their first dose, so the whole idea of regular fourth doses globally is just not sensible".
But he struck an optimistic note as he believes the "worst is behind us", Omnicron or no Omnicron.
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