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
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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”.
Rolling out booster doses while the virus rips through other parts of the world was counterproductive, he argued.
Tedros insisted: “It doesn’t even make any sense. It makes no sense”.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said four countries had announced a booster programme and a handful of others were known to be considering the move.
She stressed that there was currently “no scientific evidence to suggest that boosters are definitely needed”.
Pfizer met with top US officials on Monday to discuss its plans to seek authorisation for a third dose. Last week, the company said the booster could dramatically ramp up immunity and perhaps help ward off worrisome variants – even as US health authorities stressed that fully vaccinated Americans are strongly protected and don’t need boosters yet.
Tedros took aim at vaccine manufacturers.
“Instead of Moderna and Pfizer prioritising the supply of vaccines as boosters to countries whose populations have relatively high coverage, we need them to go all-out to channel supply to Covax,” he said.
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He was referring to the programme that is seeking to provide equitable access to doses for the most vulnerable.
“Thanks to this deal … we can move to start supplying doses to countries immediately,” said Seth Berkley, who heads the Gavi alliance – one of the partners behind Covax.
Some have called the idea of booster shots morally repugnant, given the increased spread of Covid-19 now being seen in some African countries.
“The idea that a healthy, vaccinated person can get a booster shot before a nurse or grandmother in South Africa can get a single jab is outrageous,” he said.
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Tedros noted that last week marked the fourth consecutive week of increasing Covid-19 cases globally, and after 10 weeks of decline, deaths are increasing again.
“The Delta variant is ripping around the world at a scorching pace,” he said, “driving catastrophic waves of cases” in countries with low vaccination rates.
Delta has been found in more than 104 countries and is soon expected to become the dominant Covid-19 strain circulating worldwide, said Tedros.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
