Coronavirus: WHO frustrated as countries seek booster shots
- Rich countries should donate vaccines, not use boosters, WHO says
- Last week was fourth consecutive week of increasing Covid-19 cases globally
The World Health Organization blasted the senseless “greed” of rich countries considering Covid-19 booster vaccinations while the most vulnerable in other nations were left exposed to the virus.
Striking an increasingly exasperated tone, the WHO said the world would look back on itself with shame if it knowingly chose to leave the world’s weakest at the mercy of the pandemic.
The UN’s health agency also scolded vaccine manufacturers prioritising deals for booster third doses rather than first and second shots for the completely unvaccinated health care workers and elderly people in poorer nations.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference on Monday that the question he was most often asked was when the pandemic would end.
“We can end it very soon, because we have the tools now,” he said – but for the lack of decisive global leadership.
Tedros said vaccine nationalism was “prolonging the agony” and there was only “one word that can explain this … it’s greed”.