Vaccination: why the WHO continues to oppose a third dose – LCI

While the vaccine campaign against Covid-19 is still in full swing across the world, the hypothesis of a third dose of vaccine has come true: Israel has already started administering it, the United States will do so very soon , and France will launch from mid-September a campaign for the most fragile patients.

An additional step in the fight against the epidemic which nevertheless bristles the World Health Organization, which denounced, Wednesday, August 18, the rush of the rich countries towards this third dose of vaccine. The international body, which regularly argues that the entire planet must have access to serum before considering a vaccine booster – and has even called for a moratorium on this subject – also puts forward scientific arguments.

If on Wednesday she continued to rely on a plan “moral and ethical”, judging that it is not good, in his eyes, that the rich countries inject the third dose “when the rest of the world is waiting for their first injection”, she also thinks “clearly that current data does not indicate that recalls are necessary”WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan told a press conference.

According to her, it is therefore necessary “wait for science to tell us when boosters are needed, what groups of people and which vaccines need boosters”.

In France, where some 5 million elderly or “very high risk” are targeted as a priority for a “booster dose” anti-Covid vaccine from mid-September, according to health authorities, the government recognizes that there is “no stabilized scientific advice on the categories that could benefit from this booster dose”.

Nevertheless, it specifies that the perimeter of the persons concerned is the subject of a “consensus” between the High Authority for Health (HAS), the Scientific Council and the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Council.

The vaccine-producing laboratories, for their part, plead for the administration of a vaccine booster. On Monday, the Pfizer / BioNTech alliance announced that it had submitted first batches of data to the United States Medicines Agency (FDA), showing the benefits of a third dose for immune protection.

Some preliminary studies, as well as observations made in Israel, have recently raised concerns about a diminished efficacy of Pfizer’s vaccine against infection with the Delta variant, although protection against severe cases of the disease remains very good.