The health ministry’s plan to administer third doses of COVID-19 vaccines at least eight months after an individuals' second shot needs to be reconsidered and the timeline should be shortened, according to projections by a researcher at the University of Tokyo.
Failing to accelerate the rollout of booster shots may lead to a new wave of infections that could far surpass that of the fifth wave over the summer, the projections show.
Yukio Ohsawa, a professor at the university’s graduate school of engineering, made three projections based on scenarios in which fully vaccinated individuals get booster shots less than six months, six months and eight months after a second dose.