Sir Andrew Pollard
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/13/covid-boosters-dose-vaccine?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
8/13/2021
There’s no evidence yet that top-up shots are needed, so let’s help those around the world who urgently need the vaccine
Andrew Pollard is director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford; Seth Berkley is the chief executive of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
Vaccines have brought hope. Their development is a triumph of science; the manufacture and deployment of 4.4bn doses by a handful of developers is astonishing, joyous. In the UK alone, 87m doses have been administered,
saving more than 84,000 lives. Globally, the number of lives saved by vaccines is expected to be in the millions.
As we see in the daily case numbers, the virus that causes Covid can still infect vaccinated people. Cyclically infecting immune individuals is fundamental to the biology of human coronaviruses. This is not in itself a cause for alarm. The vaccines are still providing high levels of protection against severe disease. Our immune systems have been trained by vaccines to respond when exposed to the virus, even if antibody levels have fallen. So
instead of being concerned about whether people will be infected, we should be concerned about whether that infection could lead to serious disease, hospital admission, or worse.
It is highly unlikely that vaccine protection against severe disease will suddenly fall off a cliff and the ongoing pandemic will be catastrophically rebooted. Small mutations in the virus will occur to help it survive better in vaccinated populations. But those mutations don’t render our vaccine immunity impotent. We are still protected from severe disease caused by the main variants that have emerged. So far.
This is not an all or nothing argument