WHO officials say the science is unproven about whether giving booster shots to people who have already received two vaccine doses is effective in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. It instead appealed for wider distribution of vaccines especially to poorer countries.
THE head of the World Health Organization called Wednesday (August 4) for a moratorium on administering booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines as a way to help ensure that doses are available in countries where few people have received their first shots.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the appeal mostly to wealthier countries that have far outpaced the developing world in numbers of vaccinations, the Associated Press reported.
He said richer countries have administered about 100 doses of coronavirus vaccines for every 100 people on average, while low-income countries — hampered by short supplies — have provided only about 1.5 doses per 100 people.
WHO officials say the science is unproven about whether giving booster shots to people who have already received two vaccine doses is effective in preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
The U.N. health agency has repeatedly called for rich countries to do more to help improve access to vaccines in the developing world.
It has argued that no one is safe until everyone is safe because the longer and more widely the coronavirus circulates, the greater the chance that new variants could emerge — and prolong a global crisis in fighting the pandemic.
Vaccine prices
Meanwhile, WHO also called on vaccine manufacturers to keep vaccine prices affordable, following reports that two major vaccine producers are raising the prices for their messenger RNA vaccines.
The Pfizer vaccine will jump from 15.5 euros to 19.5 euros ($18.35 to $23) and Moderna from 19 euros to 21.5 euros ($22.5 to $25.45), British newspaper the Financial Times revealed Sunday, citing the contract concluded with the European Union.
“It’s very important that we have companies’ state policies of affordable prices,” Mariangela Simao, the WHO assistant director general for access to medicines, vaccines and pharmaceuticals, told a press conference on Wednesday.
She said both Pfizer and Moderna had increased their manufacturing capacities, diversified their plants and increased production line efficiency.
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