Germany, France, and Israel will continue to implement the COVID-19 vaccine booster plan, ignoring the call of the World Health Organization to postpone vaccination to more people around the world.
Despite the strongest statement of the WHO, it still decided to advance the injection, but as rich countries step up their plans to protect citizens from the more contagious variants of the delta, there is huge inequality in responding to the pandemic .
French President Emmanuel Macron said that France is working hard to introduce the third dose of vaccine to the elderly and vulnerable groups starting in September.
The Ministry of Health stated that Germany intends to provide boosters for immunocompromised patients, elderly people and nursing home residents from September.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged senior citizens to have a third injection after the government started a booster campaign last month.
“Anyone over 60 years of age who has not received the third dose of the vaccine is six times more likely to be seriously ill and die,” Bennett said.
In an online discussion with the public and reporters, Bennett stated that Israel’s efforts to provide a third dose of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to people over 60 years old will provide the world with important information about combating the Delta variant.
He added that Israel, with a population of 9.3 million, is a small country and its use of vaccines “has not really significantly affected world supply”.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday (August 4) called for the use of boosters to be stopped at least by the end of September, saying that it is unacceptable for rich countries to use more global vaccine supplies.
A generationInequality
According to WHO, high-income countries injected about 50 doses of vaccine for every 100 people in May, and this number has since doubled. Due to lack of supply, low-income countries can only inject 1.5 doses per 100 people.
“I understand that all governments are concerned about protecting their people from the delta variants. But we cannot accept that countries that already use most of the global vaccine supply use more vaccines,” Tedros said.
Germany rejected these allegations, saying it would also donate at least 30 million doses of vaccine to poorer countries.
The Ministry of Health said: “We hope to provide a preventive third vaccination for the disadvantaged in Germany, and at the same time support the vaccination of as many people in the world as possible.”
After Tedros’ comments, the White House said on Wednesday that it was prepared to provide booster injections when needed, implying that it would not heed WHO’s call.
Pfizer said that due to the weakening of the antibody response, especially after six months, boosters are most likely to be needed.
US health regulators said that more scientific evidence is needed to prove that certain boosters are necessary, but they said they believe that people with compromised immune systems may need a third shot.
The Macron government is trying to strengthen France’s vaccination program as the country faces a fourth wave of virus and street demonstrations to protest the government’s COVID policy.
To date, France and Germany have respectively vaccinated 64.5% and 62% of the population with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, of which 49% of French and 53% of Germans are fully vaccinated.
