A group of experts have urged western countries to meet their duty towards the rest of kindness rather than stocking up vaccine doses just for themselves. The head of the Oxford vaccine group has cautioned that many more people around the world can die due to Covid if the leaders do not share vaccine doses with third-world countries. Prof Sir Andrew Pollard and Seth Berkley, the chief executive of Gavi (a vaccine alliance) have a lot of vulnerable people in the financially poor countries who have not been vaccinated even the first dose of the Covid vaccine and that could have serious consequences.
"Large-scale boosting in one rich country would send a signal around the world that boosters are needed everywhere. This will suck many vaccine doses out of the system, and many more people will die because they never even had a chance to get a single dose," the experts warned. "If millions are boosted in the absence of a strong scientific case, history will remember the moment at which political leaders decided to reject their responsibility to the rest of humanity in the greatest crisis of our lifetimes."
The warning has come as Israel started administering booster shot to all citizens above the age of 50, even though the WHO urged countries not to offer the third shot to people at least by the end of September. WHO has asked governments to make sure the third shot is started only after other countries, especially the third-world nations, are able to procure enough doses to vaccinate the majority of the population at least with one dose.
UK’s Sajid Javid had also declared that plans for a booster campaign for all citizens above the age of 50 are in place. However, experts have warned the government that such a mass rollout may not be needed and the booster shot should be administered only to people who are most vulnerable to coronavirus.
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