Selfishness is One Way to Describe the COVID-19 Booster Shot Campaign in Developed Countries

When the vast majority of people on the planet have yet to receive a COVID-19 injection, one wonders what the leaders in Developed Countries are thinking when they announce a third booster shot for an already vaccinated population.

The Delta variant of the coronavirus that currently is spreading throughout the globe has government and health leaders in the Developed World running scared to the point that they are missing the bigger picture: a largely unvaccinated Developing World.

In a conference this week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), attempted to remind the richer nations on our planet about the peril faced by the vast majority of those living on it. The Developing World vaccination count, he stated, amounts to 1.5 jabs per 100 people. Compare that to high-income countries like Israel, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and a few others who have monopolized the majority of the world supply administering almost 100 shots per 100 of their citizens.

Ghebreyesus stated, “I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the delta variant,” but we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the world’s most vulnerable people remain unprotected.” He went on to request a moratorium on booster shots until the end of September, or at least when 10% of the population in every country in the world has received at least one shot.

In today’s The Globe and Mail, Canada’s self-proclaimed national newspaper, a story describes the plight of Zimbabwe’s citizens in desperate need of vaccines. The paper’s Jeffrey Moyo and Geoffrey York, write, “Eight months after vaccines arrived in wealthy countries, the global vaccine shortage is persisting. While most people in rich countries have received at least one dose of vaccine by now, lower-income countries still have severe shortages. Only 4% of Africans have received any vaccine, even as the pandemic surges into a third or fourth wave in many countries on the continent.” They go on to reinforce the WHO argument describing booster shots as the new threat to global supply noting that the evidence is unclear on whether these third jabs are necessary.

When Israel announced in the past week it was beginning a third-vaccine dose campaign for people over age 60, I was perplexed, thinking this is an overabundance of caution, and wondering about the inequity of such a move considering that Palestinians in the West Bank under Israeli military occupation remain under-vaccinated.

Then Germany announced its plans to follow Israel with a third jab for its elderly and vulnerable groups using the mRNA vaccines on those who had previously received AstraZeneca or Johnson&Johnson shots. Now, other European Union countries are indicating plans to do the same.

In my country, Canada, our government has secured an agreement with the mRNA vaccine supplier, Pfizer, for 35 million more doses in 2022, and 30 million in 2023. The Province of Quebec is already offering mRNA booster shots to anyone who had the Indian-made AstraZeneca known as Covishield and is planning to travel to a country where that vaccine doesn’t meet entry requirements.

By comparison, the countries of Africa are vaccine starved with endless queues forming outside public health facilities and hospitals anytime there is a rumour about supply. In Zimbabwe, the rich can buy a private-clinic administered jab for $40 USD. But for the vast majority, the call by the WHO to vaccine producers and rich countries is to make the COVAX program work by funding it and distributing surplus vaccines to the Developing Countries for the good of all humanity.

If we plan to beat this pandemic through herd immunity, it won’t happen even if Canada vaccinates every citizen here, because borders won’t block the coronavirus in a world where modern transportation links all of us. Regardless of what the White House press secretary said to the Associated Press in comments today, the likelihood of a parallel booster program in the United States not taking away vital vaccines from the larger global need is not evident. All countries including Israel, Germany, other EU nations, Canada, and the United States, need to stop booster talk and help Developing World countries to up their numbers quickly.