Adjudicating the logistics of COVID-19 vaccine boosters from a global perspective

ABSTRACT

The emergence of the novel SARS-CoV-2 variants has led to the advocation of COVID-19 vaccine boosters by many countries. The reasons cited for the booster vaccination, such as waning immunity, immune escape due to viral evolution and suboptimal responses in immunocompromised individuals, need to be cautiously weighed against possible risks, including immune-mediated side effects, vaccine hesitancy, global vaccine inequity, and emergence of new variants in the naive population. The scientific, ethical, and economic adjudication indicates that the primary vaccination of unvaccinated masses should be prioritized over the premature booster implementation. Although, in the future, when the global vaccine shortage has been subdued or if the protective immunity afforded by the current COVID-19 vaccination protocols wanes substantially, the booster vaccinations may be implemented.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• SARS-CoV-2
• vaccine
• booster
• effectiveness
• equity

Authors’ contributions

PR. did the ideation, conceptualization, data curation, writing original draft, reviewing, and editing. O.P.C. executed the conceptualization, writing original draft, reviewing, and editing. I.S. did the reviewing and editing. All the authors critically reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Ethical approval

This article does not require any human/animal subjects to acquire such approval.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.