WHO calls for a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September, to enable at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated
Geneva: In January of this year, a midwife from Uganda called Harriet Nayiga joined the World Health Organization’s press conference to talk about her experience as a health worker during the pandemic. While vaccines were being rolled out in the wealthiest countries, Harriet was one of many health workers in Africa and around the world who was still waiting for her turn to be vaccinated. At the time, Uganda – like much of Africa – had relatively few cases of COVID-19.
But starting in May of this year, Uganda experienced a surge in cases and deaths, as variants tore through a largely unvaccinated population.
Today morning, Harriet sent the WHO this email:
“I got my first shot and am yet to receive the second. The situation was tough for the last two months, where over 2000 people died so far, including health workers. We hope that the vaccines will be able to reach different parts of the country and hope that people will be responsible enough and go for vaccination. Otherwise, COVID is spreading, though people are now moving to work in order to earn a living, since the majority depend on hand to mouth.”
Sharing Nayiga’s story at a press conference in Geneva today, the WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “This is the reality for hundreds of millions of people around the world – they cannot afford to stay at home. They work to eat. These populations need vaccines urgently, especially health workers, older people and other vulnerable groups.”
And yet even while hundreds of millions of people are still waiting for their first dose, some rich countries are moving towards booster doses. So far, more than 4 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally. More than 80% have gone to high- and upper-middle income countries, even though they account for less than half of the world’s population.
“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, while the world’s most vulnerable people remain unprotected,” Dr. Ghebreyesus said.
Accordingly, WHO is calling for a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September, to enable at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated. “To make that happen, we need everyone’s cooperation, especially the handful of countries and companies that control the global supply of vaccines,” the WHO D-G said.
– global bihari bureau
