As richer countries discuss giving booster shots to their citizens to help combat the Delta variant of COVID-19, the World Health Organization is asking them to stop the boosters until the rest of the world — the poorer nations — get their first doses.

As quoted in The New York Times, WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta variant, but we cannot — and we should not — accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the world’s most vulnerable people remain unprotected.”

Meanwhile, in the richer countries like the U.S., COVID-19 vaccination rates are bouncing all over, with some areas boasting high rates of fully-vaccinated populations and others being called out for their low rates — meaning large numbers haven’t received even their first doses.

That leaves the question of what to do up in the air as those richer countries debate whether the additional, third-dose boosters are actually needed, or whether they should listen to the WHO, which reports that more than 80% of the 4 billion doses already distributed have gone to the richer countries.

SOURCES:

The New York Times August 4, 2021