by Kevon Browne
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): “No more vaccines should go to countries that have already vaccinated more than 40 percent of their population,” said Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation, in their latest Press briefing on COVID-19.
Until COVAX has the vaccines it needs to help other countries get there too; no more boosters should be administered except to immunocompromised people.”
The Director-General continued his plea for countries that have reached and passed the benchmark of having 40 percent of the entire population vaccinated to hold off on administering more vaccines, especially booster shots.
“Most countries with high vaccine coverage continued to ignore our call for a global moratorium on boosters at the expense of health workers and vulnerable groups in low-income countries who are still waiting for the first dose.”
Some countries that have passed the benchmark include Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Cuba, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and here at home, St. Kitts and Nevis.
The US started the rollout of boosters in late September. Soon enough, other nations followed the UK, Canada, Barbados and now St. Kitts and Nevis, as announced recently by Dr Cameron Wilkinson, Medical Chief of Staff at the Joseph N France General Hospital.
Now why ignore the repeated call from the Director-General?
Experts have said that the pandemic is expected to be with us for as long as people move. With travel and tourism making their way back to pre-COVID levels, the virus will continue to progress, as observed globally by the rises and falls in the rate of transmissions.
The majority of countries within Europe are currently seeing an increase in cases for the fifth consecutive week. Our Federation is on the back end of the third wave of community spread we have seen.
However, if you follow the trend of this virus, rises and falls are expected, so long as people lower their guards, the virus will continue to spread. The US is a prime example of this; during summer, people were out and about as if the pandemic was over because of what was deemed a successful rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines.
