Covid-19 Vaccine (Photo: Daniel Schludi / Unsplash)
Cover Covid-19 Vaccine (Photo: Daniel Schludi / Unsplash)

Throughout the entire course of the pandemic, the virus has mutated into many different variants and people around the world are wondering if a third vaccine shot is necessary

Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, Covid-19 variants like the Alpha, Delta and Lambda have been emerging and proliferating all around the world, and these mutations have now become a source of global interest and concern with regard to how effective the current vaccines of two doses can protect against them.

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In response to this uncertainty, important questions arise in relation to how we can determine who the booster shots should be administered to, when they should be administered and which vaccine they should get for a third shot.

It was recently reported that scientists think that a third dose might aid in protecting the very immune-suppressed and patients who have cancer and transplant procedure history. Yet there is still limited evidence for the immunity-boosting factor of the booster shot and data needs to be analysed further.

Keep scrolling to find out everything you need to know so far about the booster jab.

See also: Lambda Covid-19 Variant: Everything You Need to Know

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Vaccination campaign (Photo: Mufid Majnum / Unsplash)
Above Vaccination campaign (Photo: Mufid Majnum / Unsplash)

Singapore will "very likely" organise a vaccination booster exercise

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said at a multi-ministry task force news conference on August 19 that Singapore will first observe other countries' booster shot administration to consider the incidence of adverse reactions and whether the shot ought to be the same vaccine or a different one before enacting the booster exercise.

He also said that the government is open to giving the booster to people whose immune systems were severely compromised at the time of taking their first two doses to get a third shot, which includes cancer patients, people who have had organ transplants and those who are immune-suppressed.

Which countries are rolling out booster jabs

After the Delta Variant hit the country in June this year, Israel was the first nation to hand out the booster shot after they went from single-digit daily infections to over 12,000 cases when they removed their Covid-19 restrictions. Hungary, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia have already begun giving out booster shots to eligible candidates and medical workers, and the US, UK, South Korea, Canada, France, Germany and Austria have started planning booster campaigns.

Why the World Health Organisation does not recommend the jab

While stronger Covid variants could develop, the WHO believes that booster vaccine shots should be donated to countries where people have not received their first or second doses and that only those whose immune system is compromised should get a booster shot. The overall consensus is that countries should complete their primary vaccination campaign before considering the booster vaccine.

When you should get the booster vaccine

According to specialists, there is no definitive data to support the answer to the recommended time to get a booster. It is currently unclear if protection against severe disease will wane within the fully vaccinated community which justifies the need for the booster shot, but it is still uncommon amongst the fully vaccinated and scientists are still observing and analysing data about this.

Should you get the same vaccine or a different one for the booster

Professor Ooi Eng Eong of Duke-NUS Medical School told Channel NewsAsia that the preliminary data shows that a different vaccine could be useful to increase immunity against the Sars-CoV-2 variants, but the general conclusion is that there is still limited evidence for the effectiveness of a different vaccine as a booster shot.

Testing people for antibodies

Specialists question the idea of testing individuals for antibodies as they believe that measuring antibodies does not account for the different ways that our immune system protects us against disease as the immune system cultivates memory cells that produce antibodies on demand. Testing for antibodies is also known to complicate the rolling out of vaccines in large-scale vaccine campaigns, where it becomes more challenging to give the vaccine to larger populations if the antibodies testing is added to the procedure.

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