No need for Covid-19 vaccine booster shots in most people yet, scientists find

In a review published in The Lancet, a panel of scientists said there was no ‘credible evidence’ for vaccines’ protection ‘substantially declining’

Studies indicate vaccination is 95 per cent effective against severe disease, on average, and more than 80 per cent at preventing infection, they found

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An elderly patient receives a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in Paris on Monday. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:02pm, 13 Sep 2021Updated: 6:13am, 14 Sep 2021

Covid-19 vaccines work so well that most people do not yet need another jab, an all-star panel of scientists from around the world said in a review that is likely to fuel the debate over whether to use booster shots.

Governments would be better served to focus on immunising the unvaccinated and to wait for more data on which boosters, and at what doses, would be most effective, the authors, who included two prominent US Food and Drug Administration experts, argued in the medical journal The Lancet. They based their assessment on a wide range of real-world observational studies as well as data from clinical trials before the vaccines were approved.

“None of the studies has provided credible evidence of substantially declining protection against severe disease,” the authors wrote. There could also be additional side-effect risks if boosters are introduced too soon or too broadly, they said.

A health worker administers a Covid-19 vaccine booster shot in France this month. Photo: AFP

The review comes as most countries with ample vaccine supplies debate whether to allocate doses for booster shots to prop up immunity and potentially help stop the spread of the more infectious delta variant. The United States plans to roll out booster shots starting September 20, though the plan still needs sign-off from the FDA and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among the scientists behind the conclusions were Marion Gruber, who leads the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review, and her deputy Philip Krause. Both have said they would step down later this year. Gruber and Krause were two of a group of FDA staff who last year pushed back against pressure by the Trump administration to speed up the authorisation of the Covid-19 vaccines, according to a person familiar with the matter.