WHO wants a moratorium on booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The US rejects such a solution

The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for a moratorium on booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The organization justified its call with a widening gap between rich countries with wide access to COVID-19 vaccines, and poorer ones where they are not as common.

– We have to reverse this trend. Most vaccines going to rich countries must go to the poor, said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference in Geneva.

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The WHO reaction was triggered by reports from Germany and Israel, where vaccination campaigns with the third dose of COVID-19 preparations have already started. The so-called booster doses are mainly intended for the elderly whose immune system is not producing enough antibodies despite being fully vaccinated with two doses.

The head of the WHO calls for a global moratorium “at least until the end of September” to try to reach the global goal of immunizing 10 percent of the population in every country in the world. Of the 4 billion doses administered so far in the world, 80 percent of them were administered in high-income or upper middle-income countries, which is only half the world’s population.

The United States rejected a call for a moratorium, saying there was “no need” to choose between giving a third dose of the vaccine to its citizens or donating to poorer countries. The USA has not yet made an administrative decision regarding the application of a third dose of the anti-COVID-19 preparation.

In addition to calling for a WHO moratorium, at Wednesday’s press conference, she called on pharmaceutical companies that produce vaccines against COVID-19 to consider pricing. Due to the adaptation of their products to the new SARS-CoV-2 variants, Pfizer and Moderna intend to increase the prices of preparations sold in the European Union.