Posted on 09/08/21
| News Source: i24
Ghebreyesus also called previously for a pause on boosters shoots through September
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for countries to halt their distribution of booster vaccines from a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday.
Ghebreyesus called for a previous pause on boosters shoots through September in an attempt to allow poorer nations the chance to vaccinate, but it was not heeded. Several countries, including Israel, France, and the US, planned to commence with their booster vaccine campaigns anyways.
“I will not stay silent when companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world’s poor should be satisfied with leftovers.” Ghebreyesus stressed in his news statement, quoted in ABC10.
“So today, I’m calling for an extension of the moratorium until at least the end of the year to enable every country to vaccinate at least 40% of its population.”
The announcement comes following COVAX's statement that the vaccine distribution program would only be able to immunize around 20% of the population within poor countries. The WHO, a backer of COVAX, has spoken out many times about the challenges posed by the inequality of vaccine distribution throughout the world.