Repeatedly administering booster vaccines to the population is not a viable strategy in the fight against the coronavirus. Experts from the World Health Organization warned about this on Tuesday. Vaccines should also be developed that better prevent the spread of the virus.
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“A vaccination strategy based on repeated boosters of the first vaccines has little chance of being suitable or viable,” said a WHO expert group overseeing vaccines against the coronavirus. The experts also believe that vaccines are needed and should be developed “with a high impact in terms of spreading and avoiding infection, in addition to preventing serious illness and death”. They should also elicit a powerful immune system response, thus reducing the need for repeat booster shots.
In anticipation of such vaccines, the experts suggest “perhaps updating the composition of current vaccines to ensure they continue to provide WHO-recommended levels of protection against infection and disease,” including against variants such as omikron.
The experts also point out that it is not yet clear whether the lower severity of omikron is due to the variant’s intrinsic characteristics, or to the fact that large parts of the population are already partially immune due to the vaccine or a previous infection. Meanwhile, omikron is spreading at an unprecedented rate.
Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech expect to have their modified vaccine ready in March. Moderna is aiming for the fall with its omikron vaccine.
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