Foreign News
WHO Warns Against Blanket Boosters as Vaccine Inequity Persists
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday warned that blanket COVID-19 vaccine booster programmes could prolong the pandemic and increase inequity.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, gave the warning at the last news briefing for the year at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva.
“No country can boost its way out of the pandemic.
“And boosters cannot be seen as a ticket to go ahead with planned celebrations, without the need for other precautions,” he said.
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) has issued interim guidance on booster doses, expressing concern that mass programmes for countries that can afford them, will exacerbate vaccine inequity.
Currently, around 20 per cent of all vaccine doses administered are being given as boosters or additional doses.
“Blanket booster programmes are likely to prolong the pandemic, rather than ending it, by diverting supply to countries that already have high levels of vaccination coverage, giving the virus more opportunity to spread and mutate,” Ghebreyesus said.
He stressed that the priority must be on supporting countries to vaccinate 40 per cent of their populations as quickly as possible, and 70 per cent by the middle of 2022.
“It’s important to remember that the vast majority of hospitalisations and deaths are in unvaccinated people, not un-boosted people,” he said.
“And we must be very clear that the vaccines we have, remain effective against both the Delta and Omicron variants.”
The WHO chief reported that while some countries were now rolling out blanket programmes – for a third, or even fourth shot, in the case of Israel – only half of WHO’s 194 Member States have been able to inoculate 40 per cent of their populations due to “distortions in global supply”.
Enough vaccines were administered globally in 2021,” he said.
Therefore, every country could have reached the target by September, if doses had been distributed equitably through global solidarity mechanism COVAX and its African Union counterpart, AVAT.
“We’re encouraged that supply is improving,” he said, adding that Today, COVAX shipped its 800 millionth vaccine dose. Half of those doses have been shipped in the past three months.”
He again urged countries and manufacturers to prioritise COVAX and AVAT, and to work together to support nations furthest behind.
While WHO projections show sufficient supply to vaccinate the entire global adult population by the first quarter of 2022, and to give boosters to high-risk populations, only later in the year will supply be sufficient for extensive use of boosters in all adults.
Reflecting on the past year, Ghebreyesus reported that more people died from COVID-19 in 2021 than from HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined, in 2020.
Coronavirus killed 3.5 million people this year, and continues to claim some 50,000 lives each week.
He said although vaccines “undoubtedly saved many lives”, inequitable sharing of doses resulted in many deaths.
“As we approach a new year, we must all learn the painful lessons this year taught us. 2022 must be the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it must also be the beginning of something else – a new era of solidarity,”
New WHO guidance recommends that health workers use either a respirator or medical mask, in addition to other personal protective equipment (PPE), when entering the room of a patient with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.
Respirators, which includes masks known as N95, FFP2 and others, should especially be worn in settings with poor ventilation.
As many health workers across the world are unable to access these items, WHO is urging manufacturers and countries to scale up production, procurement and distribution of both respirators and medical masks.
The director-general emphasised that all health workers must have all the tools they need to do their jobs, which includes training, PPE, a safe work environment, and vaccines.
“It’s frankly difficult to understand how a year since the first vaccines were administered, three in four health workers in Africa remain unvaccinated,” he said. (NAN)
The ECOWAS Court of Justice has ordered the Togolese government to pay five million CFA Francs damages to its citizen, Mr Kessei Menveinoyou, for the violation of his fundamental rights.Delivering judgment, the court held that Togo violated the right of Menveinoyou to a fair and timely appeal under Article 7(1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The court’s three-member panel presided by its President, Justice Ricardo Gonçalves and delivered by Justice Edward Asante, held that Togo was under obligation to uphold its citizens’ rights to fair trial. According to the court, the Republic of Togo is a party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and has every legal obligation to comply with the charter’s provisions.“The failure of the Togolese judicial authorities to transmit the Applicant’s appeal to the relevant appellate court violated his right to a fair trial within a reasonable time,” the court said.The Community Court also dismissed Togo’s preliminary objection that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the suit.Justice Asante held that cases of alleged violations of fundamental human rights instruments fell under its purview and were binding on all ECOWAS member states. The court, therefore, ordered the Togolese Republic to pay Menveinoyou five million CFA Francs in damages.It also directed the Togolese government to take the necessary legal or administrative steps to expedite the processing and hearing of Menveinoyou’s appeal before the appropriate domestic court. It would be recalled that Menveinoyou, a driver residing in Lomé, had filed an employment suit against the Togolese Ministry of Health to a Labour Court in Lomé in 2015.The Labour Court later delivered judgement in favour of the Ministry, following which he filed an appeal against the judgment in 2016.Menveinoyou claimed in the appeal that the Labour Court Registrar neglected to transmit his appeal to the appropriate appellate court for hearing.According to him, the Registrar’s negligence resulted in an unreasonable delay of about eight years.He contended in his submission before the ECOWAS court that the Registrar’s inaction contravened his fundamental right to have had his appeal heard within a reasonable time. Responding, the Togolese government had objected to the ECOWAS Court’s jurisdiction, arguing that the matter fell within Togo’s domestic legal framework.The panel also had Justice Gberi-Bè Ouattara as a member(NAN)
A Zamfara-based CSO, ‘Zamfara Circle Community Initiative’, has lamented the situation of the stranded Zamfara students in Cyprus and called on the state government to take tentative steps to address the problem.
The Chairman of the organisation, Dr Al-amin Tsafe, made the call at a press briefing in Gusau on Saturday.
Tsafe appealed to the state government to immediately commence the process of paying all the debts affecting the students.
He said, “We are in contact with various philanthropists and well-meaning individuals and organisations from within and outside the state who are willing to intervene and help to support the students.
“We believe the matter is the responsibility of government.
”According to Tsafe, as a CSO working to promote humanity, they cannot continue to watch while the lives of their children are in serious danger,
“Therefore, we give a 5-day ultimatum to the state government to take action before we embark on an appeal fund project to rescue the students.
“On the 17th of October 2024, we submitted a memorandum to the state government concerning the status of the state’s students stranded in Cyprus.
“That was to balance the information from the side of the government with what was obtained from other stakeholders including parents, CSOs and the students themselves, identify the gaps and advise the government where necessary.
“Till today, however, there is no response to that inquiry,” he said
Tsafe, however, said that the problem was inherited from the previous government, adding, “we believe the business of governance is a continuum.
“We noted that the state government under Gov. Dauda Lawal made some moves to help the students.”
He lamented that the students still lacked proper accommodation and have to engage in menial labour to feed themselves.
Tsafe further decried that the students were under the risk of exploitation by employers due to the lack of legal documentation.
“Their visas and passports have expired, for them to live in a foreign country without legal documentation puts their lives at the risk of imprisonment and deportation.
“Already, one of the students had suffered this fate and was deported to Lagos in handcuffs and another one is still in prison.
“We urge the state government, as a matter of urgency, to provide those students with funds for upkeep and accommodation,” he appealed.
Tsafe urged that the state government should take tentative steps to renew their passports and visas so that they can live freely without fear of arrest, imprisonment or deportation.
“The state government should act urgently to save the students from being held in prison or deported.
“Government should use the figures generated from the students’ portals as the verified debt owed the university by the state government
“We appealed to the state government to take tentative steps to mitigate further occurrence of this problem,” he added.
Report says that Lawal, in a press release signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Sulaiman Idris, said the state government was taking plausible measures to resolve the issue. (NAN)
The U.S. Justice Department has accused Iran of plotting the assassination of President-elect Donald Trump.
“The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
During the FBI’s investigation into another case, a 51-year-old man from Iran with Afghan citizenship said that a few weeks before the U.
S. presidential election, he had been instructed by Iran to present and implement a plan to assassinate Trump.The investigators consider the statements to be credible.
A few weeks ago, Trump’s campaign team announced that it had been informed by the U.
S. Secret Service about real and concrete threats from Iran to assassinate him.The U.S. judiciary has brought charges against the 51-year-old and two other men also accused of plotting to assassinate an Iranian dissident.
Arrest warrants have been issued for the men.
“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” warned Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security,” Gerland insisted.
In his first term as U.S. president, Trump withdrew from the nuclear agreement with Iran, imposed new sanctions against the country, and classified the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation.
In 2020, the U.S. military killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Trump’s orders. (dpa/NAN)
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