BLANKET BOOSTER DRIVES RISK PROLONGING PANDEMIC, WHO CHIEF WARNS

Thu 23 December 2021:

The World Health Organization’s chief has warned that the rush to distribute additional COVID-19 vaccine doses in wealthy countries is worsening inequity in access to vaccines, which is prolonging the pandemic.

On Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted that getting vaccines to vulnerable people everywhere, rather than giving additional doses to those who have already been vaccinated, must remain the top priority.

“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic,” he told reporters.

“Blanket booster programmes are likely to prolong the pandemic, rather than ending it, by diverting supply to countries that already have high levels of vaccination coverage, giving the virus more opportunity to spread and mutate,” Tedros told reporters.

He said the priority must be to reduce deaths and help all countries meet minimum vaccination targets that many still have not reached. And he noted that “the vast majority of hospitalisations and deaths are in unvaccinated people, not un-boosted people.”

Tedros called for a moratorium on booster doses to vaccinated, healthy people months ago, but it was ignored until at least 40% of people in all countries had received a first jab.

He noted on Wednesday that while enough vaccines were given to people around the world this year to meet that goal, global supply disruptions meant that only half of the world’s countries had done so.

“It’s frankly difficult to understand how a year since the first vaccines were administered, three in four health workers in Africa remain unvaccinated,” said Tedros.

Tedros renewed a call for manufacturers and other countries to prioritise the COVAX programme to get doses to needier nations and “work together to support those who are furthest behind”.

“Unless we vaccinate the whole world … I don’t think we can end this pandemic,” Tedros said.

But he added that authorities now know the virus better and have effective tools to fight it; “we need to add to that comprehensive implementation and equity, and hope 2022 will end this pandemic.”

Tedros insisted Wednesday that “the vaccines we have remain effective against both the Delta and Omicron variants.”

“It’s important to remember that the vast majority of hospitalisations and deaths are in unvaccinated people, not un-boosted people,” he said.

According to UN figures, approximately 67 percent of people in high-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose, while only 10% of people in low-income countries have received at least one vaccine dose.

His remarks came as the Omicron variant’s rapid spread around the globe since its discovery in South Africa last month dashed hopes that the pandemic’s worst days were behind it.

According to the WHO, the new variant is spreading at an unprecedented rate and has already been detected in 106 countries.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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