The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday condemned wealthy countries that are planning to give Covid-19 vaccine booster shots to their people even when millions of people around the world have yet to receive a single dose, reported UN News.
“The divide between the haves and have nots will only grow larger if manufacturers and leaders prioritize booster shots oversupply to low- and middle-income countries,” the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
He said ten countries have administered 75% of all COVID-19 vaccines, while low-income countries have vaccinated little more than 2% of their populations. He added that vaccine injustice is a shame on all humanity.
The WHO chief said that in an interconnected world, in which the COVID-19 virus is mutating quickly, national leaders need to commit to vaccine equity and global solidarity to save lives and slow down variants. He reiterated calls for a temporary moratorium on boosters, to ensure that supplies can be shifted to those countries experiencing major spikes in infection.
During an online news briefing on Wednesday, WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 was found to be circulating in areas with low vaccine coverage and driving transmission of coronavirus disease around the world.
She warned that the Delta variant was spreading even in countries with high vaccination rates at the national level.
Dr. Michael Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies chief, said giving booster shots to already vaccinated people was like handing out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets while leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket.
According to a recent study published in the journal Immunity, the Delta variant is unable to evade the antibodies generated by vaccination. It also explained why vaccinated people have largely escaped the worst of the Delta surge.
