The growth in new COVID cases, though mainly under home care, is driven largely by new subvariants of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, known as BA.4 and BA.5. These two variations harbor mutations that make them more transmissible, either due to these mutations or due to waning protection from vaccines and previous infections or a combination of both. One school of thought says that antibodies elicited by the COVID-19 vaccines are more effective against these new subvariants than those garnered by the previous infection. But there is another distinct school of thought which says that the unvaccinated have much more natural immunity and a lower rate of BA.5 infection than those having multiple doses of vaccine. Such are the thoughts from Germany and USA. Even in our country, some people are regularly taking booster doses and some people have stopped after the second dose. Many Indian children are still not vaccinated.
So what do you think? Have we achieved herd immunity? If not, is a natural way the best route?
Do let us know.
