World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus criticized drugmakers (STAT), including Pfizer and Moderna, for marketing COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to wealthy countries and called for them to instead focus on supplying poorer countries that are far behind in vaccination campaigns. “We’re making conscious choices right now not to protect those in most need,” Tedros said.
WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said there is not enough evidence that boosters are needed as soon as six months after the first vaccine dose and urged wealthy countries to reconsider administering boosters. Yesterday, Israel began offering third vaccine doses (Times of Israel) to immunocompromised adults, and Pfizer met with U.S. officials to explore the possibility of boosters in the United States. Meanwhile, the COVAX initiative to supply poorer countries with vaccines has faltered (AP) as new variants spread, and global daily COVID-19 deaths have begun to rise after falling for ten weeks
