The vaccine is still our best bet against Covid

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The Covid-19 vaccine protection is short-lived, booster shots are important, stated one study. The research has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The risk of breakthrough infections is also dependent on the type of vaccine, noted the study. Yet a professor who led the study with another stated that people tend to forget that they are in an arms race against the virus. It will evolve ways to evade both our natural and any vaccine-derived immune response.

This then makes the booster which has recently opened up and is now free for everybody, extremely important. We have often emphasised that vaccines and boosters fall under this ambit and are there for a reason: to combat a virus that is constantly evolving, trying to evade natural and vaccine-derived protection. While it is entirely possible that one may contract Covid even after a booster, it is also important to note that symptom severity is much less and deaths are lower among the boosted, too.

Taking the booster, if eligible health-wise and there will be very few who are not, means respect not just for oneself but others who you meet, too. Deciding for oneself that two vaccines are somehow ‘enough' and one does not need any more, for whatever reason, or that nobody is insisting on it is as dangerous as saying I have access to the Internet, I am going to scour my symptoms and self-medicate.

Countries have already given people second booster shots and there are talks about even more boosters which may be necessary. While one country may not strictly follow other countries, the development is an indicator of the many-headed hydra that the virus is, and why boosters are part of the arsenal in the fight. Take the precautionary shot, as an added safeguard as Coronavirus and its variants continue casting a shadow over our lives.