“Programs with generalized booster doses are likely to prolong the pandemic instead of ending” the spread of the covid. With these words, the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, underlines how the campaigns focused on the third dose of the covid vaccine risk producing results opposite to those hoped for. Many countries administer the third dose. Some, like Israel, are already thinking about the fourth dose. However, where the vaccines do not arrive, the virus circulates and can mutate, to produce new variants such as Omicron
“It is important to remember that the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are from unvaccinated people, not people without the booster dose. And we need to be very clear that the vaccines we have remain effective against both Delta and Omicron variants,” he adds. the need to distribute vaccines where even the first doses are in short supply. “The global priority must be to help all countries reach the 40% vaccine target as quickly as possible and the 70% target by the middle of next year,” he explains.
“No country can get out of the pandemic with a booster dose. And third doses cannot be seen as a ticket to go on with the planned holidays, without the need for other precautions,” he warns. “While some countries are launching programs with” booster “vaccinations for the entire population,” only half of WHO member states have been able to meet the goal of vaccinating 40% of their population by the end of the year. year, due to imbalances in the global supply “of doses.