Booster campaign extends corona pandemic: WHO becomes clear

Created: 12/23/2021, 01:51 PM

From: Tom Offinger

For a few weeks now, the German booster vaccination campaign has broken the records set in the summer.

But not everyone is enthusiastic about the progress.

Geneva / Munich - According to the World Health Organization (WHO), rich countries with their booster vaccinations are probably responsible for an extension of the corona pandemic.

If the vaccine doses used for this had gone to health workers and people at risk in poorer countries, 40 percent of people in all countries would have been vaccinated as early as September.

WHO takes rich countries to duty: "Will pandemic prolong"

The WHO assumes that with a global vaccination rate of 40 percent in every country, the acute phase of the pandemic would be over.

Instead, more than half of WHO members missed the 40 percent target by the end of the year, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva on Wednesday.

"Nationwide refresher programs will likely prolong the pandemic instead of ending it," Tedros said.

This is due to the fact that vaccination doses are delivered to countries that already have a high vaccination coverage.

These vaccine doses were missing in poorer countries.

This gives the virus the opportunity to spread in underserved areas and form new variants there.

Corona vaccinations: Africa in particular is lagging behind

The independent vaccination council Sage, which advises the WHO, also spoke out on Wednesday clearly against general booster vaccination programs such as those that have been launched in Germany, Great Britain, the USA and other rich countries. "Given the ongoing uncertainty about global vaccine supply and equity, individual country decisions about refresher programs must balance the public health benefits of their own populations with support for global equality of vaccine access," the new Sage Recommendations read.

This is necessary to cope with the virus development and the effects of the pandemic.

According to the

, around 48 percent of the global population have so far been vaccinated twice against the coronavirus.

In total, more than eight billion doses have already been administered.

However, the vaccination rates differ drastically in the countries.

While vaccination is taking place at a rapid pace, especially in Europe and North America, African countries in particular have fallen behind.

With the exception of Botswana, Morocco, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Tunisia, the rates in almost all countries on the continent are between zero and 20 percent.