germany and france announced this week that they will offer covid-19 booster shots, despite pleas from the world health organization to focus on vaccine equity first.french president emmanuel macron
said in an instagram post thursday that “like other european countries,” france is planning to provide third doses to the elderly and the immunocompromised. they want to do it time with the back-to-school season, he said.earlier this week, the german health minister said germany will also start offering boosters to elderly and at-risk people in september, due to worries about their “
reduced or rapidly declining immune response.”these decisions come despite who’s requests that wealthy countries avoid boosters until at least the end of september.“we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the world’s most vulnerable people remain unprotected,” who’s director general dr. tedros adhanom ghebreyesus
said in a speech on wednesday.“high-income countries have now administered almost 100 doses for every 100 people. meanwhile, low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 doses for every 100 people, due to lack of supply. we need an urgent reversal, from the majority of vaccines going to high-income countries, to the majority going to low-income countries.”for that reason, who has requested “a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of september, to enable at least 10 per cent of the population of every country” is vaccinated.
hungary is currently offering booster shots to anyone who wants one,
according to the washington post. the u.k. has expressed interest in the idea of boosters for vulnerable groups, but is still waiting for a final decision from its expert advisory panel. italy and spain have also talked about the possibility, although there are no plans in place yet.on wednesday, the u.s. indicated that
it may not observe the who’s request either. white house press secretary jen psaki called the focus on offering vaccines to low-income countries a “false choice,” and said the country could potentially provide booster shots and donate excess vaccines to other countries.the canadian government hasn’t yet indicated any plan for booster shots here. health canada
has said that “the need for future booster doses is being closely monitored,” given the new virus’s new variants, but that there aren’t any immediate plans for a booster rollout.montreal’s dr. caroline quach-thanh, former chair of the national advisory committee on immunization (naci), believes global vaccination should be canada’s priority.“if you give those [third] doses here, it means that you’re not giving them elsewhere,”
she told cbc. “at this point in time, what is absolutely needed is for the entire planet to be vaccinated, because if we want to stop the emergence of all those variants of concern that we’re seeing like day in, day out, we absolutely need to have everyone vaccinated.”
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