WHO reiterated that booster doses are worsening poor countries’ access to covid vaccines

The third dose of the COVID vaccine being inoculated in several countries is making it more difficult to access the first two doses in poor countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today, revealing that six times more booster doses are given each day than initial doses. This is a scandal that must stop now. The vast majority of countries are ready to vaccinate, but they need the doses,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. The organization’s experts expressed alarm at the upward curve of the pandemic, particularly in Europe, where two million cases were reported in the last week, the highest weekly figure since the pandemic began. Deaths in Europe, which were 27,000, accounted for half of all those that occurred in the world. The organization said that to reach its goal of 40% of the population of all countries being vaccinated by the end of the year it needs an additional 550 million doses, which is equivalent to what is produced in just ten days. The WHO would have plenty of doses to distribute through the COVAX platform (created to work for equitable access to vaccines) if a majority of the countries that promised to donate a total of 1.4 billion doses had kept their word. So far, they have only delivered 20% of what is offered. Several of these promises have remained unfulfilled because thirty countries have gone on to recommend a third dose to their populations, in some cases to the highest risk groups and in others to people in general.” It doesn’t make sense to give boosters to healthy adults or vaccinate children when there are health workers, older and high-risk people around the world who are still waiting for the first dose,” said Tedros, who said an exception should be people who have an immune system that is not working well and should receive a booster. EFE

Original source in Spanish