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GENEVA: The World Health Organization said on Monday (December 7) that persuading people of the merits of a COVID-19 vaccine would be far more effective than trying to make jabs mandatory.
The WHO said it would be up to individual countries how they want to carry out their vaccination campaigns against the coronavirus pandemic.
But the UN health agency insisted that making it mandatory to get vaccinated against the disease would be the wrong way to go, adding that there have been examples in the past of forcing the use of vaccines only to see it backfire with further opposition to them.
“I don’t think mandates are the direction to go here, especially for these vaccines,” Kate O’Brien, director of the WHO immunization department, told a virtual press conference.
“It is a much better position to encourage and facilitate vaccination without those kinds of requirements.
“I don’t think we imagine that any country creates a mandate for vaccination.”
O’Brien said there may be certain hospital professions in which vaccination is necessary or highly recommended for staff and patient safety.
But WHO experts admitted there is a battle to be fought to convince the general public to apply the vaccines as they become available.
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ONLY ‘RESPONSIBLE’ CHOICE: RYAN
“The story of the vaccine is good news. It is the victory of human effort, potentially, over a microbial adversary,” said the organization’s emergency director, Michael Ryan.
“We need to convince people and we have to persuade.”
As for making vaccines mandatory, he said: “I think all of us who work in public health would rather avoid it as a means of vaccinating people.
“We are much better served by presenting people with the data and benefits and letting people make their own decisions.
“There are certain circumstances … in which I think the only thing responsible would be to be vaccinated.”
According to the WHO overview of different candidate vaccines, 51 have entered human trials, 13 of which have reached the final stage of mass testing.
A further 163 candidate vaccines are being developed in laboratories with a view to eventual human testing.
The first global launch of the Pfizer vaccine is due to begin in Britain on Tuesday.
PRIORITY LIST
As countries begin rolling out vaccines in the coming weeks and months, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged them to prioritize those most in need.
“These are not easy decisions,” he said, setting the WHO guidelines.
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Tedros said healthcare workers at high risk of infection were a top priority, in addition to people at higher risk of serious illness or death due to their age, thus relieving pressure on healthcare systems.
He said they should later be followed by people at higher risk of serious illness due to underlying conditions and marginalized groups at higher risk.
The WHO ACT-Accelerator mechanism, which pools risk and reward between rich and poor countries, is a global attempt to accelerate the development of COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, and to buy and distribute them uniformly regardless of the wealth.
However, the scheme urgently needs $ 4.3 billion, with another $ 23.9 billion required in 2021.
“What we need now globally is not to enter the land of empty promises in terms of supporting the ACT-Accelerator,” Ryan said, urging wealthy donors to join.
“The means to do this allocation fairly and equitably are there. But what is not available is the funding for that to happen in 2021.
“There is too much of a gap between rhetoric and reality.”
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