WHO 'deeply concerned' as approved COVID vaccines aren't being recognised by all nations
Zee News
The organisation has called on "all countries to ensure the recognition of vaccines proven to be efficacious and safe and certainly that meet WHO Emergency Use Listing criteria".
The World Health Organisation is "deeply concerned" that COVID-19 vaccines that have proven to be effective and have been approved by the global health body for emergency use are not being recognised in all countries, an official said on Thursday (October 7).
Addressing a press briefing, Dr Bruce Aylward, Senior Advisor to WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the organisation again calls on "all countries to ensure the recognition of vaccines proven to be efficacious and safe and certainly that meet WHO Emergency Use Listing criteria". On the importance of recognising vaccines for international travel, the WHO is "still deeply concerned that vaccines that have been proven efficacious, have been approved by WHO through the Emergency Use Listing procedure are not being recognised in all countries," he said.
Dr Katherine O'Brien, Director of the Department of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals at WHO, added that recognition of vaccines is an important issue because it is pushing people to be vaccinated with more doses than they would otherwise be recommended to receive if the vaccines that they've already received that are WHO Emergency Use Listed are not recognised.