WHO urges Covid vaccine booster moratorium

The World Health Organization has urged countries to avoid giving out extra Covid jabs until year-end, pointing to the millions worldwide who have yet to receive a single dose.

"I will not stay silent when the companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world's poor should be satisfied with leftovers," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists on Wednesday.

Speaking from WHO's headquarters in Geneva, Tedros urged wealthy countries and vaccine makers to prioritise getting the first jabs to health workers and vulnerable populations in poorer nations over boosters.

The WHO called last month for a moratorium on Covid-19 vaccine booster shots until the end of September to address the drastic inequity in dose distribution between rich and poor nations.

Despite the call for a moratorium, some countries have been arguing for booster jabs not only for vulnerable people, but also for the wider population, citing signs of waning vaccine effectiveness against the highly transmissible Delta variant.

The WHO has acknowledged that an additional dose could be needed for immunocompromised people, but stresses that, for healthy people, the vaccines still seem very effective, especially in preventing severe disease.

Tedros said low-income countries were ready to run effective Covid-19 vaccination campaigns and it was now down to manufacturers and rich countries to deliver the pledged doses to ease global health inequalities.

About 80% of the 5.5 billion vaccines doses that have been administered globally went to high and upper-middle income countries, he said.

WHO has set a target to enable every country to vaccinate at least 40% of the population by the end of this year and Tedros said deliveries to poorer nations need to be boosted for this to be achieved.

Tedros said ministers of the 20 richest nations had assured him they would do everything to achieve the 40% target this year.

"Now is time for true leadership, not empty promises," he added.