The WHO was calling for a moratorium on COVID-19 booster shots until “at least the end of September”
On Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the World Health Organization was calling for a moratorium on COVID-19 booster shots until “at least the end of September”.
Tedros said during a news briefing in Geneva that the WHO was calling for a moratorium on COVID-19 booster shots until “at least the end of September” in order to enable at least 10 percent of the population of every country to be inoculated against COVID-19.
“To make that happen, we need everyone’s cooperation, especially the handful of countries and companies that control the global supply of vaccines,” Tedros said.
Also, Tedros said that some rich countries were moving towards COVID-19 booster shots even while hundreds of millions of people are still waiting for their first dose.
Tedros added that more than 4 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have so far been administered globally and more than 80% have gone to high and upper middle income countries even though they accounted for less than half of the world’s total population.
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CNN Philippines reported that Germany, Israel, and the United Kingdom have announced plans to provide COVID-19 booster shots for certain vulnerable populations.
According to Tedros, he understood the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta COVID-19 variant.
However, he said that the WHO can’t and shouldn’t accept countries that have already used most of the global vaccine supply using even more of it while the world’s most vulnerable people remained unprotected.
Last May, Tedros called for global support to enable countries to inoculate at least 10% of their populations by September. According to Tedros, although it’s more than halfway to the target date, the world wasn’t on track.
When his challenge was issued, Tedros said that high-income countries had administered around 50 COVID-19 vaccine doses for every 100 people.
The number had doubled since then, with high-income countries having administered almost 100 COVID-19 vaccine doses for every 100 people, while low-income countries had been able to administer 1.5 COVID-19 vaccine doses for every 100 people due to lack of vaccine supply.
“We need an urgent reversal from the majority of vaccines going to high-income countries to the majority going to low-income countries,” Tedros said.
Tedros also called upon the G20 leaders to make concrete commitments to support WHO’s global COVID-19 vaccination targets, for COVID-19 vaccine producers to prioritize COVAX, and for everyone with influence to support the call for the moratorium on COVID-19 booster shots.
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