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WHO strongly opposes the start of COVID-19 booster shot in United States

WHO strongly opposes the start of COVID-19 booster shot in United States. The United States will start the third shot of the COVID-19 vaccine at the end of September? The WHO is angry!

After the US FDA opened the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to people with immunocompromised functions, a number of senior public health experts and medical experts in the United States signed a joint letter suggesting that the United States will start receiving the second dose of vaccine from September 20 to the United States eight weeks after vaccination. People open the third dose of vaccination to strengthen citizens’ immunity against the delta COVID-19 mutant virus.

The signatories of the joint letter include Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and so on.

The statement wrote that the COVID-19 vaccine is still very effective in reducing the risk of severe hospitalization and death. However, as time goes by, the protective effect of the vaccine continues to decrease, and additional doses are required to provide continuous protection.

Shortly after the announcement, the US FDA officially announced on August 23 that it approved the Pfizer vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 pneumonia in people over 16 years of age.

There is currently evidence that the protection against mild to moderate infections of the new coronavirus is declining after vaccination. According to a New York study, between May and July this year, the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing infection dropped from 92% to 80%; in a CDC study on nursing home residents, the vaccine’s effectiveness dropped from 75% in March to 8 53% of the month.

It is speculated that the vaccine’s ability to prevent severe infections may also weaken within a few months. The virus poses the greatest threat to people at high risk of infection and people who are vaccinated early. They need to intensify injections to improve immunity and prolong persistence.

The statement recommended that on September 20, the COVID-19 vaccine will be opened to Americans for the third dose of booster vaccination. As long as the U.S. FDA and CDC are approved, all people who receive the second shot of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine 8 months after the second shot can get the third shot, and priority is given to health care workers, nursing home residents, and the elderly.

At present, large chain pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens in the United States have been able to vaccinate the immune-deficient population with the third dose, but they have not yet opened it to others. The person in charge of Walgreens said that the pharmacy is preparing for the third injection and will provide injection services to the general public once the FDA approves it.

The WHO strongly opposed this decision by the United States.

WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that the vaccine is highly protective against the new coronavirus. Before the third shot for developed countries, the focus is on vaccinating the world’s most vulnerable people. WHO estimates that 11 billion doses of vaccine are needed to control the global epidemic. There are still billions of people who have not received the first dose. In particular, less than 5% of people in most low-income countries have been vaccinated. In most South American countries, less than 33% of people have been vaccinated. Current data does not support the third injection. The COVID-19 virus is mainly spread among people who have not been vaccinated, and more and terrible mutations will occur. Let it develop, and a drug-resistant virus will appear.

Michael Ryan of the WHO believes that vaccines should be given priority to people at high risk of hospitalization and death around the world. He made an analogy: We were handing out lifebuoys to people wearing life jackets, and then watching other people drown without any rescue equipment.

Interestingly, during an online discussion with Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the School of Public Health of Brown University and Dr. Paul Offit, a virus vaccine expert, they also believed that the current vaccine is still very effective. It can be targeted at certain groups, such as elderly people in nursing homes may need an additional injection. They also criticized the United States for not considering enough of the world’s epidemic situation and that it needs to do more for the world.

In response, American officials stated that the United States did not make a “choice of two” in its own country and the world, but was responsible and made efforts in both aspects. The United States claims that it has provided a total of 110 million doses of vaccine to 65 countries and will provide 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccine by the end of this month. The official approval of the vaccine by the FDA is expected to give people more confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.

(source:internet, reference only)

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