Why There Should Be a Moratorium on COVID-19 Booster Shots Until Low-Income Countries Get Vaccinated

“I got my first shot and am yet to receive the second. The situation was tough for the last two months, where over 2000 people died, including health workers. We hope that vaccines will be able to reach different parts of the country and that people will be responsible and go for vaccination. COVID is spreading, though people are now moving to work in order to earn a living, since the majority depend on hand to mouth.” This was part of an email we received last week from a midwife in Ugandan, Harriet Nayiga. It reinforces how difficult life is in parts of the world where Delta and other highly transmissible variants are ripping through populations, which remain largely unprotected due to extremely low vaccine coverage. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] To date, 10 countries have administered more than 75% of the world’s vaccines, while low-income countries have received just over 1%—nowhere near enough to fully vaccinate their health workers, older populations and others at highest risk of severe disease and death. Despite this searing inequity, some rich countries have announced plans to administer “booster” doses to populations that have already received a full course of vaccination. Not only is this ethically objectionable, when considering the hundreds of millions of people who have not yet received a single dose in the world’s poorest countries, the scientific data to support such a major policy intervention, which wil...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news