Coronavirus booster shots ‘not appropriate’ for general population

Coronavirus booster shots ‘not appropriate’ for the general population, according to international experts.

Experts have deemed that the effectiveness of the various vaccines against severe COVID cases is so high that booster shots for the general population are “not appropriate” at this point.

The review was carried out by an international group of experts including scientists from the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The results of the review have been published in the Lancet.

The experts have said that vaccine effectiveness across all variants is greater against severe COVID than against a mild case of the disease.

Lead author, Dr Ana-Maria Henao-Restrep from the World Health Organisation said: “Taken as a whole, the currently available studies do not provide credible evidence of substantially declining protection against severe disease, which is the primary goal of vaccination.

“The limited supply of these vaccines will save the most lives if made available to people who are at appreciable risk of serious disease and have not yet received any vaccine.

“Even if some gain can ultimately be obtained from boosting, it will not outweigh the benefits of providing initial protection to the unvaccinated. If vaccines are deployed where they would do the most good, they could hasten the end of the pandemic by inhibiting further evolution of variants.”

In other coronavirus news, vaccination progress triggers job optimism in Spain as over 50 per cent of managers make plans to expand their workforce this year.

The hospitality sector in Spain was the hardest hit during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, but now they have the greatest hope of hiring workers during 2021.

In Spain economic recovery is predicted for 2021 and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to rise by up to 6.8 per cent this year. The excellent progress of the vaccination programme in Spain has so far seen over 74 per cent of the population vaccinated. Both these factors have boosted hiring expectations among managers.

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