WHO urges wealthy nations to refrain from administering COVID-19 boosters

The World Health Organization today, citing worldwide disparities in COVID-19 vaccination rates, urged the wealthiest nations to free up vaccine supply by refraining from administering boosters. According to WHO, high-income countries administered approximately 50 doses of COVID-19 vaccine for every 100 people in May, with that number since doubling. Comparatively, low-income countries have only administered 1.5 doses for every 100 people, which WHO attributes to a lack of supply. "I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the delta variant,” said WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “But we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it."