oppn parties Giving Booster Dose Must Be Hastened

Story Of The Day

The Sensex Did Not Crash. Its Closing Auction Did Its Job Too Well.

September 02, 2026

People Are Talking About

People Are Talking About the Language of Gen Z

News Snippets

  • Calcutta HC asks why are MPs facing egg-pelting, in the mohua Moitra case, allows the MP to enter her constituency with police protection
  • Police find fingerprints and other evidence of both the two accused and the rape survivor inside the bus in the Delhi gang rape case
  • Abhishek Upadhyay, the journalist who exposed the embezzlement of Ram Mandir funds, has sought Supreme Court help as Ghaziabad Police have sought his digital footprint from X. He claimed that such information will compromise the sources who provided him the information
  • Supreme Court quashes 127 FIRs in 5 states against students who took part in CJP stir. In repsonse, CJP cancels the September 5 march from India Gate to Delhi Police headquarters
  • TCS buys Best Buy's GCC operations in India, pips Accenture to the post in a deal worth around Rs 2000cr
  • To avoid stiff tariff, Aun Pharma offers to supply cheaper drugs at Most Favoured Nation pricing to US Medicaid programme
  • 5-member NCLT bench stays Subhash Chandra's Rs 6.5cr repayment order
  • Reliance entered the icecream space by launching Bombay Creamery
  • Copyright office rejects AI system as artwork author, says Parliament needs to make the legal position clear
  • GST collection jumps 15% in August to Rs 199853cr on the back of 29% jump in tax from imports
  • Asian Games: Japan Cricket Association says participating cricketing teams can arrange their own hotels as the Games are not directly under JCA
  • T20s versus Afghanistan: Bumrah and Samson return, Hardik still unfit. Sooryavanshi keeps his place
  • Duleep Trophy: South Zome have upper hand in the other semifinal
  • Duleep Trophy: East Zone beat Central Zone by four wickets to enter the final
  • PM Modi asks youth to make social media content on drug abuse
Duleep Trophy: South Zone beat North Zone by 7 wickets to set up the final clash with East Zone ////// Air Marshall (Retd) Jeetendra Sharma appointed the first CEO of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya
oppn parties
Giving Booster Dose Must Be Hastened

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-03-19 05:33:03

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

With a second Omicron wave making its appearance in China, south-east and East Asia and several European countries, the Centre has rightly sounded an alert and asked states to send samples for genome sequencing and maintain a vigil on clusters for greater disease surveillance. It has also started vaccinating kids between 12 and 14 from March 16 while doing away with the co-morbidity condition for booster dose for senior citizens.

Despite the fact that the surge is now happening in countries that have administered booster doses, vaccines still remain the best shield against serious, life-threatening infections. India will have to modify its vaccine policy to start giving booster doses to all adults in phases. Since the booster programme is now open to all senior citizens, it must be opened to those above 45 and then to those above 18 in the next couple of months.

It was mainly due to the fact that nearly 95% of adult Indians had received at least one dose of the vaccine that the third wave was not as destructive as the second (apart from the fact that Omicron is a milder variant). But most adults had taken the second dose 6 months ago and that means that their immunity levels have reduced. In India, only 1.4 booster doses per 100 people have been administered till now. Thus, it is urgent that the booster dose is administered fast.

Further, as per research carried out at CMC, Vellore, a mix-and-match strategy in giving booster doses works better. For instance, if those who have received two doses of Covaxin are now given Covishield as the booster dose, it shows a six-fold rise in anti-bodies. However, the same has not been found true to those who were given both doses of Covishield earlier. But since more than 80% persons in India were vaccinated with Covishield, this needs further study. Since the vaccine bouquet has grown, the mix-and-match study should be conducted using different permutations and combinations to find out the best booster dose.

Other Stories You Make Like

Editorials

7.8% GDP Growth Is Good News.

7.8% GDP Growth Is Good News.

 Accountability Cannot Be a Precondition to Debate

Accountability Cannot Be a Precondition to Debate

In Depth

The Taxman's Doppelganger: How India's ITR Filing Deadline Became a Phishing Season

The Taxman's Doppelganger: How India's ITR Filing Deadline Became a Phishing Season

Editor's Pick

Kangana Ranaut's War on 'Generation Gutter'

Kangana Ranaut's War on 'Generation Gutter'
© 2014 India Commentary. All rights reserved.