WHO calls for postponement of booster doses against COVID-19 to vaccinate everyone and avoid more dangerous variants

By Rich Mendez - CNBC

The World Health Organization on Wednesday called

for a moratorium on booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines

, citing inequality in vaccine distribution around the world.

The WHO said the moratorium should last at least two months, to give the world a chance to meet

the goal of vaccinating 10% of the population of all countries

by the end of September.

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"We urgently need to change things so that most vaccines stop going to rich countries and go to poor countries," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

The moratorium is part of Ghebreyesus' plan to

vaccinate 40% of the world's population by December

, according to Bruce Aylward, his senior adviser.

"The big picture is not to move forward with booster doses until the entire world reaches a point where older populations, people with comorbidities, and frontline workers are protected, to the extent possible, with vaccines, "Aylward said.

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Experts argue that

vaccinating the entire world's population is critical to ending the pandemic

.

The delta variant, which is spreading rapidly in the United States, was first detected by scientists in India, and originated from the ability of the original strain to spread and multiply, eventually mutating. 

The result of this process generated a highly contagious strain with a higher probability of evasion compared to the protection of vaccines that has become the dominant variant in most countries.

Unless most of the world's population is immunized

,

variants will continue to emerge

, posing greater risks to all countries, vaccinated or unvaccinated.

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“The whole world is experiencing this, and as we have seen with the emergence of variant after variant, we will not be able to get out of this situation unless we work together.

But with the huge disparity in vaccination coverage, we just won't be able to do it, ”Aylward said.

The length of the moratorium request could be extended if immunization is not increased in countries with low vaccination rates.

"If you look at how vaccines are being used globally, the acceptance rate from high-income and upper-middle-income countries

is sucking up the global supply for lower-income countries

," Aylward said.

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This call came after Israel announced that it will administer booster doses to its elderly population.

In the United States, some people are also implementing measures to get booster doses.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health and San Francisco Zuckerberg General Hospital said Tuesday they will allow patients who have received a dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine to receive a supplemental injection of a messenger RNA vaccine.

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Pfizer claimed that people will need a booster shot, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that information is still lacking to justify the need for the booster doses.

WHO officials also said that beyond December, they expect

70% of the world's population to be vaccinated by mid-2022.

"At that point we can begin to focus on the limits of existing solutions and how much we need to implement other measures," said Kate O'Brien, director of WHO's department of immunization, vaccines and biologics.

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Until that goal is met, WHO officials hope countries with high vaccination rates will comply with the moratorium request and, more importantly, with the call to end vaccine inequity.

 “We need a vaccination strategy, we also

need social and public health measures at the individual and community level

. Everyone needs to step up right now, ”said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical director of COVID-19 at WHO.