Against the backdrop of various States in India re-introducing night curfew to deal with the spread of Covid-19, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Friday said such curbs were “not science-based” and it has no evidence of effectiveness. Instead, Swaminathan said, wearing masks and vaccination against the Covid-19 can help “reduce transmission”.
Advising that Indians need to be prepared, but not panic, she also said that “politicians need to start balancing the scientific-based method to reduce the transmission and its impact on people, while at the same time keeping the economy open as people have suffered enough.
“Schools should be the last to be closed and first to be opened because prolonged school closure has a devastating effect on children and education.”
“If 90 per cent of the population wore a mask the whole time, you would drastically reduce transmission. That we need to focus on. Keeping in mind that Covid-19 is not the only thing affecting our lives in terms of health,” the WHO chief scientist told a news channel.
Many States like Delhi, Maharashtra, Odisha, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, and Assam have declared a ban on night movement and limits on gathering and warned of legal action against those who do not comply.
Swaminathan said, “Countries should look at their own data: people who are dying, which vaccine did they take and how long ago did they have it, which population group should be targeted. This is how we learn about immunity. What we know now is the neutralizing antibody responses do wane over a period of time, at about 6 months.”
On India allowing precautionary shots, Swaminathan favoured combining vaccines for boosters. She said, “So far that we have on this mix and match or combination have not included Corbevax. There is data on the Covavax that has been tried as a booster. Whether you take another shot of the same vaccine as a booster or administer a different one, you get a good boost.”
Swamination said boosters give “good strengthening of the immune response as the memory cells get activated”. “What WHO said is that what vaccine you pick as the booster dose really depends on different things such as what you have used in that country, what supplies are available, what is acceptable to the public, what the costs are, etc. Whatever it is, boosters give good strengthening of the immune response as the memory cells get activated,” the WHO chief scientist said, according to the report.
“In fact, some studies have shown that it may be preferable to use a different vaccine as a booster. Given the available data, I think countries can formulate their own policy based on their immune responses and other factors such as cold storage, affordability. But, I think India is in a good position regarding the number of vaccines available at hand,” Swaminathan said.
The WHO chief scientist said “politicians need to start balancing the scientific-based method” to reduce the transmission and its impact on people. She said “schools should be the last to be closed and first to be opened” while stressing that vaccination should be given more preference.
“We need clinical studies and not just lab-based studies. So, what the WHO is really saying now is that our goals remain the same. We have to save the most vulnerable. Give them boosters. But at the same time, we do not have enough evidence that the entire population needs boosters. This is why the WHO is calling for a science-based approach in a way that we protect the most vulnerable but at the same time don’t deprive those who need the vaccine,” Swaminathan said.
“What we can expect to see in India is a surge of Omicron cases, I think it is just beginning now in some of the cities and is going to infect a lot of people,” the WHO scientist said.