GENEVA, Switzerland — The
World Health Organization chief warned Wednesday that the rush in wealthy countries to roll
out additional COVID-19 vaccine doses was deepening the inequity in access to
jabs that is prolonging the pandemic.
اضافة اعلان
WHO Director-General
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted that the priority must remain to get vaccines to
vulnerable people everywhere rather than giving additional doses to the already
vaccinated.
"No country can boost its way out of
the pandemic," he told reporters.
The UN health agency has long decried the
glaring inequity in access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Allowing COVID to spread unabated in some
places dramatically increases the chance of new, more dangerous variants
emerging, it argues.
"Blanket booster programs are likely to
prolong the pandemic, rather than ending it, by diverting supply to countries
that already have high levels of vaccination coverage, giving the virus more
opportunity to spread and mutate," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus told reporters.
Months ago, Tedros called in vain for a
moratorium on booster doses to vaccinated, healthy people until at least 40
percent of people in all countries had received a first jab.
He pointed out Wednesday that while enough
vaccines had been given to people globally this year to reach that target,
distortions in global supply meant that only half the world's countries had
done so.
According to
UN figures, about 67 percent of
people in high-income countries have had at least one vaccine dose — but not
even 10 percent in low-income countries.
"It's frankly difficult to understand
how a year since the first vaccines were administered, three in four health
workers in Africa remain unvaccinated," said Tedros.
Omicron in 106 countries
His comments came as the
Omicron variant's
lightning dash around the globe since it was first detected in South Africa
last month dampened hopes the worst of the pandemic was over.
The new variant is spreading at
unprecedented speed and has already been detected in 106 countries, the WHO
said.
Early data indicates that it could be better
at dodging some vaccine protections, spurring the rush to provide boosters.
But Tedros insisted Wednesday that "the
vaccines we have remain effective against both the
Delta and Omicron
variants."
"It's important to remember that the
vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are in unvaccinated people, not
un-boosted people," he said.
The WHO's
Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization also recommended Wednesday against blanket
booster programs, insisting additional doses should be "targeted to the
population groups at highest risk of serious disease and those necessary to protect
the health system".
So far, 120 countries have begun
implementing programs to administer booster vaccines or additional doses, it
said — but none of them are low-income countries.
'Very difficult decisions'
As case numbers surge, the UN health agency
also called on countries and individuals to take all necessary precautions to
halt the spread of the virus heading into the
Christmas holidays.
"Boosters cannot be seen as a ticket to
go ahead with planned celebrations," Tedros said.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO lead on the COVID-19
pandemic, stressed that people now know what they need to do, from wearing
masks to physical distancing.
But she acknowledged the frustration of
changing holiday plans.
"There are very difficult decisions
that need to be had in terms of making sure that we keep ourselves safe,"
she said.
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