The director-general of the World Health Organization on Wednesday called for a moratorium on coronavirus vaccine booster shots to allow vaccine access to countries struggling to obtain jabs.
"We call on everyone with influence – Olympics athletes, investors, business leaders, faith leaders and every individual in their own family and community – to support our call for a moratorium on booster shots... until at least the end of September," Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Tedros said the goal was to focus on enabling at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated.
Top U.S. health officials have said there is not yet enough data to support booster shots, even for the elderly and immunocompromised, though Israel is now recommending them for those groups. But WHO's call for a booster moratorium comes as infections are surging across the U.S. – driven by the highly contagious delta variant – where vaccine is plentiful but vaccine hesitancy remains a serious concern.
More than 90% of new coronavirus infections across the U.S. are from the delta variant, according to the latest data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The primary delta strand accounted for 83.4% of infections in the two-week period that ended July 31, the CDC says. Other delta strands represented another 10%.
Current vaccines have shown effectiveness in protecting against or at least minimizing the damage from a delta infection, and the vast majority of infections and hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...tes-delta-variant-vaccine-cdc-who/5477581001/
"We call on everyone with influence – Olympics athletes, investors, business leaders, faith leaders and every individual in their own family and community – to support our call for a moratorium on booster shots... until at least the end of September," Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Tedros said the goal was to focus on enabling at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated.
Top U.S. health officials have said there is not yet enough data to support booster shots, even for the elderly and immunocompromised, though Israel is now recommending them for those groups. But WHO's call for a booster moratorium comes as infections are surging across the U.S. – driven by the highly contagious delta variant – where vaccine is plentiful but vaccine hesitancy remains a serious concern.
More than 90% of new coronavirus infections across the U.S. are from the delta variant, according to the latest data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The primary delta strand accounted for 83.4% of infections in the two-week period that ended July 31, the CDC says. Other delta strands represented another 10%.
Current vaccines have shown effectiveness in protecting against or at least minimizing the damage from a delta infection, and the vast majority of infections and hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...tes-delta-variant-vaccine-cdc-who/5477581001/
