The WHO boss warned on Wednesday of the illusion that it would be enough to administer booster doses to get out of the Covid-19 pandemic, as Israel announced the start of its recall campaign for the fourth dose.
"No country will be able to get out of the pandemic with booster shots and the reminders are not a green light to celebrate as planned," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization. health, during a press briefing in Geneva, 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, ”stressed Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "It is important to remember that the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are people who are not vaccinated people who have not had a booster dose," he insisted, adding: " And we need to be very clear ”that“ vaccines remain effective against Delta variants like Omicron ”.
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 them are rich or middle-income countries, while "no poor country has yet introduced a recall program," said SAGE in a press release released on Wednesday afternoon.
