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The United States on Wednesday rejected a call by the United Nations health agency for a moratorium on COVID-19 vaccine recalls and for rich countries to focus on supplying the poorest countries instead. poorer.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries and companies controlling dose supply to immediately change course and prioritize tackling drastic inequalities in vaccine distribution between rich and poor countries.
“We really think this is a wrong choice and we can do both,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, adding that the United States had donated more than anything. country and called on others to step up their efforts. “Also in this country [we] have enough supplies to ensure that every American has access to a vaccine, ”she added.
“We will have enough supply to make sure that if the FDA decides that the boosters are recommended for part of the population to provide them as well. We think we can do both and we don’t need to make that choice, ”added Psaki.
The WHO has been sounding the alarm for months on a blatant and growing imbalance in the availability of vaccines against a disease that has killed 4.2 million people worldwide.
Some 4.3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, according to an AFP tally.
People receive the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine at the DITIB Central Mosque Forum in Cologne, Germany, May 8, 2021 (Martin Meissner / AP)
WHO wants each country to have vaccinated at least 10% of its population by the end of September, at least 40% by the end of the year and 70% by the middle of 2022.
In countries classified as high income by the World Bank, 101 doses per 100 people have been injected. This figure drops to 1.7 doses per 100 people in the 29 lowest-income countries.
Israel, Russia and Hungary have already started providing third booster doses to large swathes of their populations, while Germany and France have announced they will do so from September 1. Other countries, including the United States and Britain, are considering doing so in the wake of the emergence of the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Israel started giving booster doses of the COVID vaccine to immunocompromised people last month and distributed them to all Israelis over 60 on Sunday.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged the elderly population to make an appointment to receive a third dose to better protect themselves.
“The booster, the third vaccine, simply ‘recharges’ the body’s defenses and allows us to save lives,” Bennett said Tuesday as he accompanied his mother, Myrna, to receive his third dose. “I ask everyone – children, grandchildren and parents: go get vaccinated. Vaccinate a third time anyone over 60 … The more we vaccinate, the more we protect our mothers and fathers and also protect an open Israel.
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