WHO calls for halt on COVID-19 booster vaccines

The World Health Organization (WHO) is now calling for a pause on COVID-19 booster shots to enable poorer countries to catch up in vaccination rates.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom wants the halt on third shots to be in place until at least the end of September.

According to the global health, halting booster shots help achieve the WHO’s goal to vaccinate at least 10 percent of the population in every country by September this year, protecting health-care workers and the vulnerable.

“I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta variant. But we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it,” said Tedros.

Ghebreyesus said that while high-income countries have now administered almost 100 doses for every 100 people, low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 doses for every 100 people, due to lack of supply.

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“We need an urgent reversal from the majority of vaccines going to high-income countries to the majority going to low-income countries,” he added.

Some countries have begun to use or started weighing on the need for booster doses even as scientists debate over whether or not extra shots are needed amid concerns about the spread of the Delta variant.

In July, United States has seen its health regulators asses the need for a booster dose and signed a deal with Pfizer and German partner BioNTech to buy 200 million additional doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to help with pediatric vaccination as well as possible booster shots.

W.H. O’s concern comes amid German’s announcement on August 3, that it will start offering COVID booster shots as from September and make it easier for the 12-year olds to get a jab citing concerns over a reduced or rapidly declining immune response among groups.

A booster shot was to be offered to anyone who received the two-dose AstraZeneca or single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines, in the interests of preventative healthcare and to those who qualify, including people with weakened immune systems.