Officials from the World Health Organization on Wednesday criticised blanket Covid-19 booster vaccine programs in poor countries that struggle to get initial doses. They warned that unrestricted access could result in more mutations and prolong the crisis.

“Blanket booster programmes are more likely to prolong the epidemic than to end it,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (WHO Director-General) said at a Wednesday press conference.

As health professionals in the WHO, the WHO has provided the following comments U.S. promote vaccine booster shotsAll residents above 16 years of age, in response to an increase in Covid cases caused by the Omicron strain. Israel announced Tuesday that it will offer the fourth dose of Covid-19 to those over 60.

In an interview with CNN, Dr. Rochelle Wilensky, Director of the CDC stated that “we want people to be able gather” during holidays. Safety includes being vaccinated.

Tedros reports that the majority of Covid deaths and hospitalizations are occurring in unvaccinated individuals, rather than people who have not had booster shots.

Tedros stated that “no country can lift itself out of the pandemic.”

Experts in global health say that the growth of omicron is tied to to vaccine inequality. Scientists believe that Omicron was created in South Africa from an HIV patient. Only 26% are fully immunized. It is able to live indefinitely and find ways of survival within its host, which makes it a good candidate for people who have compromised immune systems.

Tedros stated that only half of WHO member countries have been able “to vaccinate at minimum 40%” of their population by the end this year, due to distortions in the global supply.

Dr Michael Ryan (executive director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme) stated that vaccine inequity was “the most horrible injustice of 2021.”