Major Medical Experts See No Need Yet For COVID-19 Booster Shots For Wider Population

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th September, 2021) Leading medical experts have warned against using COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to rebuild immunity against more transmissible virus strains in the wider population, in an opinion piece out Monday.

The authors of the article in The Lancet medical journal, including scientists from the World Health Organization, said that vaccines are working well against severe disease from all the main variants and the Delta mutation.

"Current evidence does not, therefore, appear to show a need for boosting in the general population, in which efficacy against severe disease remains high," they concluded.

The scientists stressed that, in addition to depleting the much in demand vaccine stock, there were risks associated with using boosters too soon or too frequently, such as immune-mediated side effects linked to both mRNA and adenovirus-vector vaccines.

"If unnecessary boosting causes significant adverse reactions, there could be implications for vaccine acceptance that go beyond COVID-19 vaccines. Thus, widespread boosting should be undertaken only if there is clear evidence that it is appropriate," they said.

The article's authors said a broader use of booster shots might ultimately be needed once immunity begins to wane, but the decision on when to use them should be guided by reliable science more than by politics.