W.H.O. Tells Countries Not to Offer Coronavirus Vaccine Booster Shots

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) on Wednesday urged nations not to administer booster shots of Chinese coronavirus vaccines in an effort to save the global vaccine supply for use in poorer countries.

“W.H.O. is calling for a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September to enable at least 10 percent of the population of every country to be vaccinated,” W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a regular press briefing on August 4.

A booster shot is an additional vaccine dose administered to a patient after he or she has already completed the recommended dosage for an inoculation. Hundreds of millions of people across the globe have yet to receive a single dose of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine, according to Tedros.

“So far, more than four billion vaccine doses have been administered globally. More than 80 percent have gone to high and upper-middle income countries. Even though they account for less than half of the world’s population,” Tedros noted.

“We cannot and we should not accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the world’s most vulnerable people remain unprotected,” he advised.

The W.H.O. chief lamented the fact that the international community has made little progress toward a goal set by the U.N. health body in late May encouraging each nation to vaccinate at least ten percent of its population against the Chinese coronavirus by the end of September.

“We are now more than halfway to that target date,” Tedros said. “But we’re not on track.”

The W.H.O. director said high-income nations have administered nearly 100 Chinese coronavirus vaccine doses for every 100 people since May, while low-income countries have administered just 1.5 doses for every 100 people. This discrepancy is “due to lack of supply,” according to Tedros.

“We need an urgent reversal. From the majority of vaccines going to high-income countries to the majority going to low-income countries,” the W.H.O. chief said.

Tedros called on “the handful of countries and companies that control the global supply of vaccines,” to cooperate with the moratorium on booster shots.

“[S]o far there is no evidence that a booster dose adds immune benefits to people who already have the full vaccination course,” U.N. News reported on August 4, citing remarks by Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

A limited number of countries have started administering Chinese coronavirus vaccine booster shots to their populations, including Indonesia, Israel, Russia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). Several other nations have announced plans to offer booster shots in the near future, including Britain, France, and Germany.