The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it supports broad and urgent access to Covid-19 booster shots, after previously opposing wealthy countries administering booster shots.
A Pfizer covid-19 vaccine booster shot is being given to a 75-year-old woman in Washington, D.C.
The WHO's Technical Advisory Group on Covid-19 Vaccine Composition pushed for access to both initial vaccines and booster shots in a statement Tuesday, particularly for groups at higher risk of severe illness.
In September, the organization called for a moratorium on the distribution of the booster shot in wealthy countries until at least 2022.
The World Health Organization believed that giving the booster shot to healthy people in wealthier countries would prolong the Pandemic by making vaccine inequity even worse.
In its statement Tuesday, the WHO acknowledged that vaccine equity remains an important challenge, but noted vaccine supply has increased substantially.
The vaccines have shown diminished effectiveness against preventing infections from the omicron variant and it's likely even more new variant will emerge, so the WHO called for vaccine manufacturers to develop updated shots designed to protect against new variant as they emerge.
There was a total of 1.44 billion. According to data compiled by Our World In Data, there have been more than one million booster shots administered worldwide as of Monday. The data shows that Gibraltar and Chile have booster rates that are 89.2% and 74.8% of their populations boosted, respectively. Only 28.4% of Americans have received a booster shot.
There has been an increase in cases linked to a subvariant of omicron, known as BA.2, which is believed to be even more transmissible than omicron, and has been spreading in countries including the United Kingdom, South Africa andDenmark. There are some genetic differences between the original omicron strain and the subvariant that could affect the protection against it. The initial data shows that getting infections with the omicron variant provides substantial protection against re-infection with BA.2, according to the WHO.
The emergence of the omicron variant has made booster shots more necessary, as studies have shown the extra shots provide substantial protection against infections over the initial vaccine series. A study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that booster shots restore the same level of protection seen right after the initial vaccine series. Even two shots provide more protection against illness and death. Some nations started giving fourth shots after studies suggested that booster shots might go down after a few months. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said Americans are only up to date with booster shots, which have led to more businesses and universities requiring the third shot as part of their vaccine mandates.
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