New Delhi: At a time when countries like the US and the UK have given nod to booster shots in wake of highly transmissible Covid-19 delta variant, Dr. Gagandeep Kang, professor at Christian Medical College Vellore, said that we should not “run for booster shots” as they don’t guarantee protection. “The third dose does not guarantee protection but it does help. Booster doses may add a little bit of benefit in reducing disease but it may not be the best use of doses. We shouldn’t panic and run for booster shots,” the microbiologist and virologist said in an exclusive interview to CNBC.

On Tuesday, the professor told news agency ANI, “Some countries that have used inactivated, vectored vaccines or mRNA vaccines have begun to offer a booster dose to selected populations, like the elderly.

Dr. Kang added, “In India (and elsewhere), we do not have any data showing that anyone who has received two doses of vaccine needs booster vaccines at this time.”

Talking about Moderna and AstraZeneca she said, “Yes, the Moderna and AZ correlates of protection analysis shows that higher antibodies correlate with better protection, but there is no cut-off level of antibodies which reliably predict protection at the individual levels. Antibodies are good, but not all of the immune response.”

According to Dr. Kang, whether people will have more antibodies or be better protected with the booster dose is still not known.

Further, she explained how people with a poor immune response should get a third dose.

“Who needs the booster dose and when? At the moment, we do not know. But about the FDA recommendation; it is not for boosters as much as a recognition that people with poor immune responses should get a third dose as part of their primary series of immunizations,” she said.

According to the latest updates, Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE have submitted the initial data from an early-stage trial toward seeking authorization of a booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine.

Earlier, Dr. V K Paul, Member (Health) on booster dose had said, “We are watching the science for the need for such booster dose. World Health Organization has called for a moratorium. Booster dose and whether there is a need for it and who will need it is a very relevant issue. Let’s say it’s a work in progress in fact a work in progress.”

(With ANI inputs)