- The head of WHO's global vaccine program, Covax, said rich countries must prioritize sharing vaccines over booster shots.
- The UK and US ramped up booster shot drives after scientists identified the Omicron variant.
- WHO and global public health leaders warned booster shots would slow global vaccination efforts.
The head of the World Health Organization's initiative to vaccinate the world said rich countries must prioritize vaccinating the globe over of doling out unneeded booster shots.
"The most important thing is that we still need to vaccinate…high-risk people everywhere, and that priority needs to be a global priority, not just a country priority," Seth Berkley told the Financial Times.
Berkley is the CEO of Gavi, a public-private partnership increasing vaccine access to poor countries. WHO and Gavi partnered to run the Covax initiative, which has so far shipped 590 million vaccines to 144 countries.
Berkley's comments come in response to the rapid spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, which researchers first sequenced in South Africa and have now identified in Australia, Canada, Israel, and other countries.
Infectious disease experts had warned variants would emerge in countries with low vaccination rates: Less than a quarter of South Africa's population had been fully vaccinated as of late November.
WHO had been pushing wealthy nations to share their vaccine stockpiles instead of ramping up booster shot campaigns. But as the Omicron variant has spread, the UK and the US have encouraged more adults get a booster.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adults over 65 and with underlying medical conditions to get a booster six months after receiving a full vaccination, but recently encouraged everyone to get a booster shot to protect against the Omicron variant.
On November 29, the UK begun allowing adults to get a booster just three months after their second shot.
"Where is the science that suggests three-month boosters make sense?" Berkley told the FT.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO's chief scientist, said this summer she was "afraid" that booster campaigns "will only lead to more variants."
"It may well be that you need boosters after one year or two years, but at this point after six months after the primary dose, there doesn't seem to be any indication," Swaminathan told reporters in July.