Covishield immunity waning quickly: Study

Hyderabad: The immunity against Covid gained by individuals who were administered with two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine (Covishield) is waning quickly, raising fears among public health officials here. They say that a combination of the unvaccinated population and those who were vaccinated immediately after the launch of Covid vaccines might trigger a fresh surge […]

Hyderabad: The immunity against Covid gained by individuals who were administered with two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine (Covishield) is waning quickly, raising fears among public health officials here. They say that a combination of the unvaccinated population and those who were vaccinated immediately after the launch of Covid vaccines might trigger a fresh surge of Covid infections in India.

While there are no such studies on long-term immunity levels of Covaxin, a United Kingdom study, which came out recently has indicated a ‘rapid and marked decline of anti-spike antibodies seen with AZ vaccine’.

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“Our results show waning, to levels associated with breakthrough infections before this 6 month period for those vaccinated with ChAdOx1 (Covishield) but not for BNT162b2 (Pfizer-Biontech vaccine). We found an increased risk of a breakthrough infection for those who received the ChAdOx1 compared to those who received BNT162b2,” UK researchers, whose study is available in preprint at MedRxiv (free online archive), said.

Based on such reports and other clinical studies by front-line doctors, the UK has launched a booster dose for individuals who are over 40 years of age. Other countries such as the United States, Israel, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, New Zealand, Hungary and many more have either launched or are about to launch a booster vaccine administration programme to strengthen immunity levels among the highly vulnerable groups.

The Covid vaccines were launched in the country on January 16 and the initial beneficiaries entirely comprised healthcare workers, frontline workers and individuals with co-morbid conditions. There is a fear that immunity among individuals, who were administered the vaccine about eight to nine months ago, might be waning and there is a need to introduce booster doses.

Is such a move possible in India?
“At least for the next three to four months, Covid vaccines should be administered only to the eligible population in India. Later, if there is a case for strengthening immunity among a select population, perhaps a proposal for booster doses could be considered. There is still a large swathe of the population that is still unvaccinated in India and they need to be covered at the earliest,” says former Director of Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Dr RK Mishra.

In a recent article on waning immunity levels among those who were vaccinated, one of the major reasons for the recent surge of Covid infections across Europe, noted public health expert and Professor of Molecular Medicine and Director of Scripps Research, Dr Eric Topol had advocated for the promotion of primary vaccination, booster doses along with oral pills like Molnupiravir to prevent another round of fresh hospitalisations and deaths due to Covid.

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