COVID-19 vaccine boosters not widely needed, say scientists

Booster doses for general population ‘are not appropriate at this stage in pandemic’, international scientists say.

Additional COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are not needed for the general population, a group of international scientists has said in a new report in a medical journal. The report, published in The Lancet on Monday, concluded that even with the threat of the more contagious Delta variant, “booster doses for the general population are not appropriate at this stage in the pandemic.” “Any decisions about the need for boosting or timing of boosting should be based on careful analyses of adequately controlled clinical or epidemiological data, or both, indicating a persistent and meaningful reduction in severe disease,” the scientists wrote.