To Boost or Not to Boost? Decoding the Debate on COVID-19 Booster Shots

The debate on booster shots was supercharged recently with the emergence of the highly mutated Omicron variant.

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(Photo: Kamran Akhter/ The Quint)

To boost or not to boost?

The debate on COVID-19 booster shots has existed ever since inoculations have begun, with the scientific community racing to figure out how long the protection will last.

However, the debate was supercharged recently with the emergence of the highly mutated Omicron variant, which according to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is causing a tidal wave of infections across the British isle.

The concerns regarding the new variant were muted initially with early reports indicating that it causes only mild symptoms. However, with the report of the first death due to Omicron in the UK and its rapid spread across the country, representing over 44 percent of total cases in London, the need of booster doses has become increasing clear.

Omicron has announced its presence in India as well, with the national tally climbing to 49 on 14 December. However, India is yet to take a decision on booster doses. But there are very critical questions on booster doses which are not yet answered:

How effective are the current available vaccines towards Omicron? What are the reservations regarding booster doses? And if India does authorise booster doses, which vaccine is our best bet?

To help answer these questions, we spoke Dr Rakesh Mishra, former director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology. You will also hear from Dr Shahid Jameel, one of India's top virologist, who we spoke to a earlier in December on the same topic.