Aug 4, 2021 – The World Health Organization urges wealthy nations to give their citizens booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines until at least the end of September to give more people in other countries the opportunity to get a first dose of these life-saving shots.
WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus said that more than 80% of the 4 billion vaccine doses given worldwide have been distributed to high-income countries, despite making up less than half of the world’s population.
“I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta variant,” said Ghebreyesus. “But we cannot accept that countries that have already used most of the world’s vaccine supply use more of it while leaving the world’s most vulnerable people unprotected.”
So far, high-income countries have given around 100 doses of vaccine per 100 people, while low-income countries have given only 1.5 doses per 100 people.
“This means that in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries with the weakest health systems, health workers are working without protection … the elderly remain at high risk,” said Bruce Aylward, MD, WHO senior adviser on organizational change .
But not everyone agrees.
Leana Wen, MD, visiting professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, said there are already doses in the United States that don’t last long enough to be shipped elsewhere.
“Yes, we have to bring vaccines into the world (which includes help with distribution, not just supply), but doses are expiring here in the US,” she said on Twitter. “Why don’t you allow the immunosuppressed to have it?”
Israel became the first country on Sunday to start booster vaccinations for some residents and to offer additional doses to seniors who have had their last vaccinations more than 5 months. On Monday, Germany announced that it would also give patients at risk such as nursing home residents booster doses from September.
Aylward said the moratorium was just about “trying to contain these policies until we catch up with the rest of the world”.
He said that if we didn’t stop the virus from spreading around the world, it is clear from the variant after variant emergency that the pandemic would continue to put pressure on vaccines, making them less and less effective.
“We can’t come out unless the whole world comes out together,” said Aylward.
“We need an urgent turnaround, from the majority of vaccines in high-income countries to the majority in low-income countries,” said Ghebreyesus, calling on the leaders of high-income countries to distribute booster doses up to at least Wait 10 a.m.% of the world’s population are vaccinated.
“To do this, we need everyone working together, especially the handful of countries and companies that control the global supply of vaccines,” he said.
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Press conference, World Health Organization, August 4, 2021.
Twitter: @DrLeanaWen, August 4, 2021.
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