Credit: Giovanni Cancemi, Shutterstock.com.

Economists believe that dose-stretching of Covid-19 vaccines could help reduce infections and mortality rates faster than the current policies and measures.

Alex Tabarrok

Alex Tabarrok, an economist and the Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, retweeted an article on a huge status quo bias that is killing people. Experts state that a mini or quarter dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine in each of the two jab triggers lasting antibodies and T cells. Tabarrok believes that tens of thousands of people could have been vaccinated in January. He also argues that stretching the vaccine doses could help address the global vaccine shortage.

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Economists state that such a dose-reduction strategy had succeeded in vaccinating millions of people in Africa and South America in 2016. However, such a strategy is not adopted during the pandemic despite a shortage in the global south.

Citing dose-stretching as a way to promote vaccine equity, Tabarrok and other economists believe that a half dose administered to unvaccinated individuals today is more beneficial than a full dose a year later.

Christophe Barraud

Christophe Barraud, chief economist and strategist, shared an article on Italian Central Bank Governor Ignazio Visco stating that it is too early to scale back emergency pandemic bond buying. He believes that although inflation is a concern, the rising costs are transient. Therefore, despite the gradual euro zone recovery it was not time to end the emergency stimulus measures.

The European Central Bank (ECB) introduced the pandemic emergency bond purchases or the pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) in March 2020 to lift the economies devastated by the pandemic-induced recession in Europe. Visco believes that the effects of the pandemic are not only on the volatility of markets, but also on the ability to go back to the euro zone’s 2% inflation target.

Visco also stated that the prices of certain items have increased due to the removal of sales tax reductions in Germany, a result of an increase in energy prices. However, there will be a higher rate of inflation in 2021, but it will not be permanent.

Adam Davidson

Adam Davidson, a journalist and the co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money programme, shared a remarkable take on inflation and how democracy is a bigger worry in this case than higher prices, according to Daron Acemoglu, an economist the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT.

Acemoglu states that while the risk of sustained US inflation should not be ignored, nor should it cloud what really is at stake in the current post-pandemic economy. American democracy is in trouble, and a robust, inclusive government-led recovery marked by employment and wage growth is the last best chance to put it together on sounder footing.

Economists believe that infrastructure spending, safety-net measures, expansionary fiscal and monetary policies, job creation investments, and other measures should be adopted as part of a robust pandemic recession recovery, to generate more trust in the government.