People aged above 50 years might have to be administered a booster shot of COVID-19 vaccine in the future, says Prof. Neelika Malavige of the Department of Immunology and Molecular Medicine of Medical Sciences Faculty at Sri Jayewardenepura University.
As new variants of the virus are expected to surface in the future, high-risk groups – the senior citizens and people suffering from chronic diseases – will have to be given a third dose of the vaccine annually, she pointed out.
Prof. Malavige said data from other countries have showed that the protection offered from Pfizer-BioNTech and Sputnik V vaccines wears off in older people after about six months.
According to her, more data are available for these vaccines as they were being rolled out since last December, however, there is no sufficient data to make such conclusion about the Sinopharm vaccine.
“Hence, some countries such as the United States, Israel and the UK have approved the administration of a booster COVID-19 shot six months after the administration of the second dose.”
Quoting a leading scientist Prof. Sarah Gilbert, who worked on the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Prof. Malavige noted that COVID-19 will eventually become like the common cold.
