WHO Chief Urges Halt To COVID-19 Booster Shots For Rest Of The Year

5.5 billion coronavirus vaccines have been administered so far, but 80% of those have been to upper- and middle-income countries.

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization is calling on rich countries with large supplies of coronavirus vaccines to refrain from offering booster shots through the end of the year, expanding an earlier request that has largely fallen on deaf ears. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said Wednesday that he was “appalled” at comments by a leading association of pharmaceutical manufacturers a day earlier who said vaccine supplies are high enough to allow for both booster shots and vaccinations in countries in dire need of jabs but facing shortages. “I will not stay silent when companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world’s poor should be satisfied with leftovers,” he told a news conference in Geneva.