No clear evidence fourth jab will bring benefits

Emeritus Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
Opinion - New Straits Times
May 10, 2022

100522

ACCORDING to an NBC News report, "trust in the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) fell throughout the pandemic: from 69 per cent in April 2020 to 44 per cent in January".

It could be read as "distrust in government" — something that the government can do without in trying to get things moving, especially during an emergency like the pandemic.

President Joe Biden has likened his administration's fight against the coronavirus to a "wartime mobilisation".

Millions of Americans were to receive vaccine shots every day. However, many felt the president had mishandled the pandemic.

In fact, it is said that officials "often have not trusted the public with the truth about Covid and precautions".

Including on matters related to boosters and masks that "at times appeared to contradict data and experts". It became clear that Biden's administration would not fulfil arguably its biggest promise.

On the former, in particular to the fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose, it has started to make waves in some countries, including Malaysia.

But, the issue is far from clear where experts are said to be torn, "with the World Health Organisation (WHO) still sceptical about its recommendation" with doubts remain on whether or not the extra jab would be necessary, according to reports in the Medical Daily (May 3 issue).

While the fourth dose is intended to extend the protection that Covid-19 vaccines provide, "many have been wondering if the fourth dose will also be rolled out to the general public".

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised it for people aged 50 and above and the immunocompromised.

Similarly, the CDC recommended the fourth dose for people 50 and older, but it apparently "did not give the go signal for it to be administered in healthy adults in the absence of a more solid health strategy amid the emergence of newer SARS-CoV-2 variants".

In addition to this, an Israeli study published recently said while a fourth dose of a vaccine could offer protection against severe Covid-19, it was not enough to last in the long term.

The team found that the shot protected against serious illness for at least six weeks and against infection for at least four weeks.

Since there is no clear evidence of the efficacy of the fourth dose, WHO has been hesitant to endorse it.

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan even told CNBC "there isn't any good evidence at this point of time" that the additional booster would be beneficial.

"What we know from immunology is that if you give another booster, you will see a temporary increase in the neutralising antibodies.

"But, what we've also seen is that these neutralising antibodies will wane quite rapidly."

University of Alabama professor of medicine Paul Goepfert said: "A fourth dose doesn't really do much of anything ...

"I'm not sure we need to get out and just jump up and down screaming that everybody needs to get aboard."

It would be interesting to see if Malaysia would do the "screaming" as implied by the professor — although going by previous experience, this may be the case depending, perhaps, on how the post-Hari Raya experience turns out nationwide.

The difference this time is that WHO is not as enthusiastic as it was when it comes to the second booster dose.

This may be the ultimate reason worth considering before the purported "screaming" begins for whatever reason.

The writer, an NST columnist for more than 20 years, is International Islamic University Malaysia rector