COVID-19: 'I will continue to call for vaccine equity until we get it', says WHO chief

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More than 5.5 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally. Some Western countries are already offering third so-called "booster jabs".

"Vaccine inequity is a solvable problem," said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, appealing again for pharmaceutical companies to prioritise the UN-backed initiative known as COVAX, which is designed to share vaccines globally.


"I may sound like a broken record. I don't care. I will continue to call for vaccine equity until we get it," he added, using a phrase he has used before for other issues.



Drugmakers -- including Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna -- have shown no indications they are eager to switch their current tactics, which involve appealing to rich countries and their regulators to authorise booster shots.




"WHO's global targets are to support every country, to vaccinate at least 40% of its population by the end of this year and 70% of the world's population by the middle of next year. So far, just two countries in Africa have reached the 40% target, the lowest of any region," Tedros said.

"As I said last week, that's not because African countries don't have the capacity or the experience to rollout vaccines, it's because they have been left behind by the rest of the world."
