12th of January 2022 – “The first does of vaccines rolled out in India from January 16 last year was essentially a booster dose,” claims Dr. Jayaprakash Muliyil, an epidemiologist with the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR)
Speaking to NDTV on tuesday, the doctor has argued that by the time the vaccination drive in India had begun, more than 85% of the people had been infected anyway.
He continued that, the natural immunity acquired over a period of time, and the initial infections had already made the vaccines redundant. “The first dose of vaccine the people received, whether they knew they were infected or not, served only as a booster dose.”
The doctor also said that, “the precautionary dose offered to front line workers and senior citizen would make little or no difference in protecting them against the Omicron strain.”
“This Omicron strain is highly infectious, and most of us will somehow get it.. because it is a virus that spreads so fast, We saw the rate at which first virus spread, and rate at which the delta virus spread. But the rate at which this variant is spreading is unbelievable,” he told NDTV.
The booster doses or precautionary doses, were announced last month by the Indian Prime minister last month, after pressure from doctors and medical experts.
The Omicron variant which was reported first in South Africa, is on the rise in India
As of today, the Omicron infection tally has risen close to over six thousand in India. However, Dr. Muliyil, suspects that the actual infections could be over 60 times more than the reported number.
Stay tuned with Zollical for the latest updates.
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