Nurse Mary Ezzat administers a Pfizer COVID-19 booster trigger to Jessica M. at UCI Medical Center in Orange, California on Thursday, August 19, 2021.
Jeff Gritchen | MediaNews Group | Orange County Registration via Getty Images
World Health Organization officials again called on rich nations to stop distributing booster doses of the Covid vaccine in hopes of having more doses available to the poorest countries with delayed vaccination rates.
The WHO does not have enough scientific data to tolerate widespread use of the impellers, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday. The organization has been working to address vaccine inequalities since last winter, and called on world leaders on Sept. 8 to impose a third-dose moratorium by the end of the year to redirect leftover vaccines to countries with few income.
“There are countries with vaccination coverage of less than 2%, mostly in Africa, that are not even getting their first and second dose,” Tedros said. “And starting with the drivers, especially to give them to healthy populations, is not really right.”
In Africa, just under 3.5% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated, according to WHO officials. The WHO reiterated its approval for the administration of booster doses for immunocompromised patients, but said Africa was on track to set aside the director-general’s goal of a 10% vaccination rate for all. countries at the end of the year.
Reinforcement launches have already begun in the United States, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that nearly 54% of the population is fully vaccinated. More than 1.8 million reinforcements have already been administered, the CDC said. If the WHO signs the drivers, their distribution would require an investment of about $ 1 billion a year in Africa, said Benedict Oramah, chairman and chairman of the board of the African Export-Import Bank.
Although several nations have pledged to give hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine to the developing world, trade restrictions have made it difficult to buy vaccines on their own in low-income nations, said Strive Masiyiwa, the envoy. special to the African Union by Covid. 19. Returning these restrictions would help facilitate increased vaccinations across Africa, Masiyiwa said.
“We want access to the purchase,” Masiyiwa said. “We call on countries that have imposed restrictions on exports: exports of vaccines as finished products, exports of ingredients and pharmaceuticals.”
“These restrictions are even more urgent for us than intellectual property because intellectual property does not deliver us a vaccine tomorrow,” Masiyiwa added.