The government has made available 500,000 doses of Sinopharm for the third and booster doses. But the population remains sceptical, the vaccination centres are not showing any queues and are very poorly filled. “Pfizer to teenagers is also becoming a concern!” explains Dr Philip Lam, specialist in internal medicine and member of the national vaccination committee.
The third dose highly recommended
With the reopening, the apprehensions are around infections by the variant, specifically Delta which is one of the most feared variants. “The vaccine loses its effectiveness from 4 to 6 months for the Sinopharm inactive type and 6 to 9 months for the Viral Vector types, such as Astrazeneca/Covishield and Johnson & Johnson. In Israel, the country that inoculated the population with Pfizer saw this drop in antibodies from the fourth month of the second dose and had to administer a third dose of the same vaccine thereafter. A booster dose will strengthen the immune system. People over 60 years, with co-morbidities and immunocompromised, are the most urgent to be vaccinated,” says Dr Philip Lam, who is also a key member of the Vaccination Committee. “The third dose is recommended and this fact is supported by all health professionals in many countries such as America and UK,” he says.
Vaccine mix
Speaking of the vaccine mix, he sees Pfizer as the “high-tech, wild card vaccine that can be given as a booster dose on all types of primary vaccines,” he says.
Young people are ready
As for Pfizer, “since its introduction, the Pfizer vaccine for 16 to 18-year-olds has been administered without causing any adverse side effects.” The vaccination campaign will begin on Tuesday 28 September.
