Hiranandani Hospital: We won’t waste vax, to give booster shots to staff and seniors

 

The globe is recovering from this devastating plague, albeit slowly. However, the medical community will surely face new obstacles. According to Hiranandani Hospital Powai News, Hiranandani Hospital has agreed to give booster injections to its healthcare professionals and the elderly if vaccine stocks are not depleted within two months, a day after Bombay Hospital promised free vaccinations for all. The hospital, which now has 10,000 Covishield shots costing roughly Rs 63 lakh, said it would be more prudent to offer booster shots rather than toss away vaccinations.

Booster shots are still illegal in India, despite the fact that many people in Mumbai and other places have circumvented Cowin to get a third dose. It's still a strongly discussed matter, with the US, Israel, and a number of European countries now giving booster doses, despite research demonstrating that antibody levels decline after full immunization.

"Having booster doses would be wrong. Cowin will also not allow it until there is a national policy," said Dr. N K Arora, chairman of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization in India (NTAGI). "National strategy will be strategized in just two weeks about boosters. They must not become irritable," he warned.

Moreover, 40 lakh doses are held at private hospitals in Maharashtra, but there are few takers. Hiranandani's stance comes just a day after Bombay Hospital, which has 17,000 vaccine doses, became the first in the city, and maybe the country, to provide free immunizations to the general public through donations from two organizations. Around 228 people took advantage of the free shots on Friday.

Even though their vaccine stocks have a shelf life till May 2022, Dr Sujit Chatterjee, CEO of Hiranandani Hospital, said they have opted to start utilising it for booster shots after 60 days. 

If supplies last, we'll start handing it out as a free booster shot to our hospital employees and visitors, such as the elderly," he said. He noted that the hospital believes it is a better option than throwing expired medicines in the trash.

There are several reasons why hospitals need to have booster shots.

1. If the immunity you obtained and achieved as a result of being vaccinated begins to decrease over time, it begins to weaken or decline. In reality, current evidence indicates that immunizations are quite effective in protecting you against serious disease, hospitalization, or even death. As a result, we don't believe that providing a third dosage to persons who have already been vaccinated is necessary.
2. If you fall into the type of people who didn't respond well to the first two doses, we do have some evidence that for immune compromised people, a third dose may be required because the first two aren't doing what they should in otherwise healthy people.
3. The final reason we would wish to provide a third dose is if the vaccines' performance against any of the emerging variations of concern is less than satisfactory. Again, the vaccinations we have today against the variations are holding up extremely well against the severe end of the disease spectrum, and we're keeping a close eye on this. In general, the immunizations are performing admirably.

Surprisingly, few people are ready to follow Bombay Hospital's lead or make a decision on whether or not to give boosters. "We're waiting for the national policy on a third shot," a private hospital executive stated.

Most hospitals, according to Dr. Gautam Bhansali of Bombay Hospital, are anxiously awaiting the booster policy.