As the emergence of the Omicron variant has caused a scramble for booster shots in richer nations, scientists and international organisations say tackling vaccine inequality is the only way to fight the global threat of Covid-19.
As cases continue to soar, some 120 countries have already started implementing booster programmes, the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) said Wednesday, even as WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that “no country can boost its way out of the pandemic”.
As Omicron gathers pace, boosters have been found to provide higher levels of protection against the variant. But administering third and even fourth doses is also exacerbating vaccine inequalities around the world.
In the six weeks leading up to Christmas, the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States collectively received 513 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines while African countries have collectively received just 500 million all year, according to a study released this week by the People’s Vaccine Alliance, an alliance of health and humanitarian organisations.
Some 30 million people have already received a third dose of the vaccine in Britain while 19 million people have received a third shot in France. Israel announced this week that it would be offering a fourth shot to those 60 and over.
“What is important is that we make sure that everywhere around the world gets a jab,” Lawrence Young, virologist from Warwick medical school in the UK, told FRANCE 24 on Wednesday. “Omricon is a wake-up call that tells us what we’ve been hearing throughout the pandemic; that none of us are safe until all of us are safe.”
‘There aren’t enough vaccines in the world’
Vaccine inequality means that wealthy countries have been able to respond to the threat of the virus by securing enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations several times over, while…
Source : france24
