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Paris (AFP)
Should a third dose of Covid vaccine be recommended for the general population?
Some say it’s essential to boost immunity as the Delta variant spreads, while others say valuable vaccines should go to countries – primarily in the Global South – where most people don’t. haven’t even had their first vaccine.
France was among the first countries to start distributing third injections to the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, among others.
Eligible people can be vaccinated six months after their second dose.
Countries that offer the vaccines say the extra dose is warranted because the vaccines have reduced efficacy against the Delta variant which decreases over time.
Other governments have gone even further or intend to do so: Israeli children aged 12 and over can receive a third dose five months after the full vaccination.
The United States plans to launch a campaign to distribute boosters to all Americans with Pfizer and Moderna injections.
But the World Health Organization (WHO) has more than once expressed its opposition to such measures.
“We don’t want to see widespread use of boosters for healthy people who are fully vaccinated,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Wednesday.
Speaking from WHO headquarters in Geneva, he called on countries to avoid giving additional Covid injections until the end of the year, pointing to the millions of people around the world who do not have not yet received a single dose.
“I will not remain silent when the companies and countries that control the global vaccine supply think the world’s poor should be content with leftovers,” he said.
– What are the benefits? –
There is scientific consensus that the third dose is recommended for immunocompromised patients, including people battling cancer or those who have received an organ transplant.
Studies show that the immune system of these patients does not produce a significant amount of antibodies when they receive the standard vaccine dose.
While there is less evidence to support this, the same principle applies to older people whose immune systems have been made less effective by aging.
What scientists are less convinced of is the usefulness of a booster for young and healthy people. The data just isn’t there, some say.
“We are not sure that the benefits are significant,” cardiologist Florian Zores told AFP.
“We could do studies or think about target populations instead of offering the third dose to everyone,” he said, adding that tests could determine who might – or not – need one. reminder.
“It could be a little smarter in terms of science,” added the doctor, a member of the French scientific integrity watchdog, Du Côté de la Science.
– “Boomerang effect” –
The issue of unequal access to vaccines raised by the WHO is not just an ethical issue but a practical one, experts say.
“I am not at all convinced that rich countries should administer a third dose before a large part of the planet’s population receives the first two,” epidemiologist Antoine Flahault told AFP.
By letting the virus spread across much of the world, rich countries are exposing themselves to a “particularly severe boomerang effect”.
“Foreign epidemics could generate new variants that could be even more contagious, virulent and resistant to current vaccines,” he said.
Flahault, who heads the Global Health Institute at the University of Geneva, says Israel’s widespread use of the third dose will serve as an experiment for the rest of the world.
“If the benefits of a third dose are substantial there, experts will be more likely to support the idea of handing it out,” he said.
“If the benefits are negligible, then we have to ask ourselves what is the best strategy,” he continued.
“Are we vaccinating the richest people on the planet, giving them a marginal advantage while leaving the poorest at least protected?
“Or do we vaccinate the whole planet first?”
© 2021 AFP
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