WHO boss Tedros slips up: some countries give boosters to kill children

Robert Gorter, MD, PhD. Reporting

December 27th, 2021

The “omikron variant” is spreading faster than delta, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on Monday. He also said that people who have been vaccinated or recovered are more likely to become infected again.

“We are all sick of this pandemic. We all want to spend time with friends and family. We all want to go back to normal. The fastest way to do that is to make tough choices to protect ourselves and others,” Tedros said.

Not good

If we are to end the pandemic next year, we must ensure that 70 percent of every country’s population is vaccinated by the middle of next year, the WHO chief said.

Then, something remarkable happened. Tedros slipped. He said there is evidence that older people in particular benefit from the booster vaccine and that people over 60 should receive such a booster. “We see that some countries are giving boosters to kill children, which is not good,” Tedros said.

Instead of boosting children in rich countries, we should vaccinate older people in countries where not all older people are vaccinated, he added.