People wait to be vaccinated at a Manurewe Marae vaccination centre in Auckland in October. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
People wait to be vaccinated at a Manurewe Marae vaccination centre in Auckland in October. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
EDITORIAL
The Delta outbreak has already caused adjustments to the New Zealand Government's Covid-19 response plan and more tweaks look likely.
With daily case numbers now consistently above 100 - although still not at the eye-popping levels Sydney and Melbourne reached - many of those infected are isolatingat home. That was a move brought forward with the change to a suppression strategy.
Another significant step - a general booster shot campaign - may also need to start earlier than expected.
A third Covid-19 vaccine dose has been available for a couple of weeks for severely immunocompromised people aged 12 and older.
Widening that to frontline workers and others who were the first to get vaccine shots here would appear to be a good pre-emptive move right now.
The Government has said it is waiting for advice on boosters and that people who got initial shots earlier this year would be prioritised.
A person who got their second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in April is now at the six-month point when, data suggests, the shot's ability to prevent basic infections is lessening. The vaccine is still generally able to protect people against severe outcomes.
But who would want to bring home and pass on a Delta infection to a family member, perhaps someone older and frail? One Auckland rest home has been the centre of a Delta cluster in the current outbreak.
Polls regularly show the public is generally more cautious on reopening than the public discourse suggests. Shouldn't efforts therefore be made for safety and to keep transmission down while the main vaccination rollout is proceeding?
Auckland GP Dr Roy Knill, director of CityMed, called on the Government in a letter to urgently allow frontline workers to receive their third dose. He said their immunity would be waning. This was echoed by cardiologist Harvey White in a letter published in the Herald yesterday.
Administering third doses to some people while still encouraging first doses for others and pushing vaccination targets would be messy. Discussion of boosters comes as the Government is still sorting out issues, such as whether Aucklanders will be able to leave town for Christmas.
The Government appears to want to do the bulk of its boostering next year. And people vaccinated in the second half of this year can wait until then.
This week the Government said it had signed a purchase agreement for an additional 4.7 million vaccine doses. Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said they would be available throughout next year and be used for booster shots and to inoculate children aged between 5 and 11. A trial of a homegrown vaccine booster is expected next year.
Other countries have wide booster rollouts under way or plan to now introduce them, alongside reimposing or re-emphasising other health measures such as mask-wearing, social distancing, vaccine passes and hand hygiene.
A fourth wave of Covid infection in Europe is breaking. The European Union was initially slower than the United Kingdom on vaccination with 16 per cent of the EU population having received one dose by April.
In the Netherlands, where about 80 per cent of adults are fully vaccinated, infections were up by 39 per cent this week over the week before with hospitalisations up 31 per cent. The rising trend began in October after the Dutch Government eased most remaining lockdown restrictions.
The Dutch health council, which said there were signs protection was waning among older people, has now advised the Government to begin giving boosters to everyone 60 and older and to rest home residents.
Germany is also now getting its worst case rates since May and a vaccine authority has recommended extra doses for people over 70 and rest home workers. With a third of Germans not fully vaccinated, restrictions are being tightened for the unvaccinated.
Ireland has had a drop in Covid clusters and linked cases in rest homes since a booster campaign for people 65 and over in nursing homes, and those over 80 started a month ago. The campaign will now cover people between 60 and 80 and healthcare workers.
New Zealand vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris says: "What we know about boosters is that they induce a fabulous response, which is much higher and more diverse than what you achieve after your second dose. It's also likely to provide a longer duration of sustained antibodies for a while.
"We've also got the data from Israel that shows using a booster for those who are the oldest and the frailest has dampened down those breakthrough cases."
Most of us can wait until next year, but frontline workers and the vulnerable elderly in rest homes could benefit from quicker action.
