Double dose may offer protection for year or more: WHO

WHO’s Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Monday said there has been an expected rise of Covid-19 cases globally and added that the vaccination of the vulnerable population has led to ‘uncoupling between infections and deaths.’

In an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18, Swaminathan said, “Many countries in Western Europe is seeing a surge in infections, some increase in hospitalisation due to a number of reasons… but not a significant increase in deaths. So, an uncoupling between infections and deaths, largely because the vulnerable groups have been almost entirely vaccinated.”

The WHO scientist also said that in the majority of adults, the vaccination is expected to suffice for at least a year or possibly longer. “The new evidence that is coming out seems to suggest that vaccine-derived immunity will stay for a long time, even if the level of antibodies in the blood starts declining… But for the majority of healthy adults, a course of vaccination should be good protection for at least a year, possibly, possibly longer.”

On the question of booster dose and mix-and-match vaccine, she said that though it is an interesting concept, there needs to be data to arrive at a conclusion. She added that it needs to be determined if there is still a need to have booster doses and also who will need that additional dose.

“It is a very interesting concept and the question of heterologous boosters, or what is called mix and match… But this data needs to be generated, we cannot come to conclusions without seeing the data,” she added.

Two weeks after the emergency approval for Covaxin, the WHO scientist defended WHO’s approval process of the vaccine and said that the independent scientific and technical processes should be respected. “The time taken for EUL from the submission of full data set has ranged from 45 days to 165 days and Covaxin came in at about 90 days. It has not been the vaccine that took the longest but we have to respect these independent scientific and technical processes,” she said.

She also said that the global evidence on the immune response to vaccination has been encouraging. Swaminathan reiterated that vaccination is necessary and added that the natural infection after getting exposed does generate immunity, however, it is variable.

“In some people, it is strong, it can last for a long time. In others, it may be not that strong. In about 10 to 20 per cent of people, you can’t even detect antibodies after infection,” she added. News18