WHO calls for unified criteria for recognizing vaccines for travelers | The list of those who have already been approved by the organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) He demanded this Thursday that all covid-19 vaccines on his emergency list or those of other drug regulators recognize a traveler as fully immune, even in countries where some of those vaccines are not. still approved.

WHO, in collaboration with other agencies with which it is developing the COVAX vaccine distribution program, in a statement urging “all regional, national and local governments” to recognize as fully immunized those who have received the vaccines it has declared safe.

The WHO-approved emergency list includes vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Sinovac and Sinopharm. However, the latter two, for example, have been developed in China and widely distributed in parts of Africa or Latin America, but are not yet approved by regulators in Europe and the United States.

The WHO statement comes amid a backdrop in which many countries are opening up to the arrival of international travelers due to the gradual reduction in cases over the past two months, although the increased spread of the Delta variant in some regions has caused infections to increase again globally.

“Any measure that only allows people protected by certain vaccines approved by the WHO to benefit from the reopening of travel will create a dual system, increasing global divisions around vaccines and exacerbating inequalities,” the WHO warned.

In turn, he stressed that this situation “will have a negative impact on the growth of the economies which suffer the most”, with reference to the developing countries.

The declaration was also signed by the GAVI Vaccine Foundation and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), WHO partners in the COVAX mechanism.