WHO says booster shot should not be administered until September
Severe inoculation imbalance between developed and least developed countries
“Vaccines should be supplied to low-income countries first”
An 86-year-old Israeli man receives a booster shot at a nursing home in the northern city of Netanya on the 1st. Netanya = Associated Press
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently urged developed countries discussing the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) vaccine ‘boost shot’ (third dose) to suspend vaccination until at least September. Given the severe imbalance in the supply of vaccines between high-income countries and poorest countries, the logic is that vaccines should be supplied first to countries that have not completed their primary and secondary vaccinations properly.
According to Reuters on the 4th (local time), WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a video briefing on the same day, “I hope that developed countries will not start inoculating booster shots until September.” The president said, “I understand the measures taken by governments to protect the people from delta mutation,” but “it is unacceptable for some countries, which already account for the majority of the world’s supply, to administer even a third dose,” and urged the suspension of the booster shot vaccination. did.
The reason the WHO has publicly expressed its opposition is because the polarization in vaccination rates between low-income countries and developed countries is growing. In countries that have led vaccine production, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, more than half of adults have already completed the second dose, but in Africa, Liberia and Gambia, where per capita GDP is less than $1,000 (1.4 million won), only 0.2% and 0.5% of adults, respectively. All these inoculation procedures have been completed.
President Ghebreyesus said, “To date, more than 4 billion doses of vaccine have been administered worldwide, and more than 80% of them have gone to upper-middle-income countries, which make up less than half of the world’s population.” “It is urgent to shift most vaccines from high-income countries to poor countries,” he said.
However, developed countries that have a booster shot vaccination plan are already starting to implement it. Israel started the world’s first booster shot vaccination for people aged 60 and over on the 1st. The UK and Germany also decided to implement the third dose of vaccination for the elderly and immunocompromised starting in September. US health authorities have been discussing the need for booster shots since last month.
Park Ji-young reporter jypark@hankookilbo.com
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