The Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has surveyed the pandemic in several parts of the world with varying degrees of intensity.
The core of his message is that it makes no sense to give boosters to healthy adults, or to vaccinate children, when health workers, older people, and other high-risk groups around the world are still waiting for their first dose.
Indeed, WHO has upbraided the countries that are asking citizens to take yet another Covid-19 booster shot to mitigate the transmission of the virus.
Very pertinently the UN organisation has pointed out that it is vital to ensure jabs are administered to those who need them the most, especially in poorer countries where vaccine coverage has been low.
“Every day, there are six times more boosters administered globally than primary doses in lowincome countries,” the WHO chief said, insisting that “this is a scandal that must stop now.”
This calls for reflection and follow-through action should the need arise. According to the WHO, countries have continued to administer additional doses for their vaccinated population despite repeated calls for a moratorium on boosters until the end of the year to free up jabs for poorer nations.
“It is not just about how many people are vaccinated. It is about who is vaccinated,” the WHO chief said. “It makes no sense to give boosters to healthy adults, or to vaccinate children, when health workers, older people, and other highrisk groups around the world are still waiting for their first dose.”
WHO has warned that even in countries where overall vaccination numbers are high, health systems could quickly come under pressure if significant pockets of vulnerable populations remained non-vaccinated.
It also pointed to a recent British study that showed a non-vaccinated person has a 32fold greater risk of dying in this pandemic than a vaccinated person. He has condemned stockpiling and administration of booster shots. It is cause for alarm that countries with the highest vaccination coverage are stockpiling vaccines, while nations in the lowincome category are struggling to get even the first dose for their population.
“Every day there are six times more boosters administered globally than primary doses in low-income countries.” In India, the government is yet to decide on booster doses and is riveted to expanding the coverage of first and second doses.
Nonetheless, several states and health experts have advocated stepped-up booster doses mainly for health workers and the elderly who had been prioritized for receiving the vaccine. WHO has underlined that unequal distribution of jabs can pose risks to countries with low vaccination coverage.
While WHO’s concerns are valid, the ways of the world are such that the administration of vaccines will address local needs before those beyond national shores are addressed. The suspension of the Vaccine Maitri programme last year followed the onslaught of a severe second wave.
In the “democratic” West, leaders are similarly riveted to local needs. Thus, the WHO’s chief cry will likely remain unheeded.