Covid-19: WHO criticizes countries that think they can “get out of the pandemic with booster doses”

New strong statement from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization. During a press briefing in Geneva, the Director General recalled that the solution to the fight against the virus was not essentially in the administration of booster doses.

“No country will be able to get out of the pandemic with booster doses and the reminders are not a green light to celebrate as we had planned”, he warned Wednesday, a few days before Christmas.

“Indiscriminate booster programs are likely to prolong the pandemic, rather than end it, by diverting available doses to countries that already have high vaccination rates, thus giving the virus more opportunities to spread. spread and mutate “, underlined Dr. Tedros.

According to the WHO Expert Committee on Immunization Policy (SAGE), at least 126 countries have already given instructions for the injection of a booster dose or additional vaccination (for example children ) and 120 of them have already started the campaigns in this direction. The vast majority of these countries are rich or middle-income countries.

Conversely, “no poor country has yet introduced a recall program”, underlines SAGE in a press release released Wednesday afternoon. Immunization coverage is also low in some countries, in particular because of vaccine supply difficulties. Gold, “It is important to remember that the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are people who have not been vaccinated people who have not had a booster dose”, insisted the boss of the WHO.

SAGE therefore called for concentrating immunization efforts on “reducing (the number) of deaths and more serious cases and protecting the health system”. In addition to vaccination, WHO specialists have also stressed the importance of “public health and social measures” in order to successfully stop the spread of Covid-19.