Ignoring WHO Call, Germany & France To Offer Booster Jabs

Israel Sticks To Its 3rd Shot Policy; US Says Will Go Ahead Too If Required

Germany, France and Israel will go ahead with plans to administer Covid-19 vaccine boosters, disregarding an appeal by the WHO to hold off until more people are vaccinated around the world. The decision to press ahead with booster shots despite the WHO’s strongest statement yet highlights the huge inequities in responses to the pandemic as richer nations ramp up programmes to protect citizens from the more infectious Delta variant.

French President Macron said France was working on rolling out third doses to the elderly and vulnerable from September. Germany intends to give boosters to immunocompromised patients and the very elderly from September, the health ministry said. Israeli PM Naftali Bennett in a statement urged older citizens to get a third shot after the government last month kicked off a campaign to give booster doses. “Whoever is over the age of 60, and has yet to receive the third dose of the vaccine, is six times more susceptible to severe illness and — heaven forbid — death,” Bennett said. Bennett said Israel’s drive to give third doses of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine would provide vital information to the world on combating Delta.