WHO urges nations to prioritize the COVAX initiative
Anjalee Khemlani joins Myles Udland and Brian Sozzi to discuss the World Health Organization’s push to prioritize the COVAX initiative that seeks to vaccinate 10% of the world’s population and its campaign to request nations to implement a moratorium on COVID vaccine boosters.
Video transcript
BRIAN SOZZI: All right, staying on this subject--
MYLES UDLAND: Wipe down some surfaces.
BRIAN SOZZI: --to another degree. The markets continue to be anxious over the latest trends on the COVID-19 front. Yahoo Finance senior health care reporter Anjalee Khemlani is here with the latest. Anjalee?
ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Thanks, Brian. News out of the World Health Organization today where the director general Dr. Tedros announcing that he's calling on the world to basically have a moratorium on boosters. So the wealthier countries that are already starting to weigh that question, we've already seen that start in Israel. Today in a press briefing he said the following.
He is calling on anyone with influence who can really prioritize COVAX, which is, of course, that program that the World Health Organization is working on to help distribute vaccines. And everyone-- and as well as the manufacturers themselves, to help put more emphasis into that program as well as hold off on the boosters until the end of September at the least. And that's of course because right now the World Health Organization has set a deadline of the end of September for 10% of the global population to be vaccinated and they are nowhere near reaching that right now.
And they're hoping of course to reach also 40% of the global population by December, which based on the uptake in wealthier countries, it leaves very little room for vaccines to be used in middle and low income countries right now. So a really interesting call there from the World Health Organization. September also going to be an interesting month here in the US, as the FDA is weighing full authorization for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and that's going to be an interesting call. As we know right now, vaccine mandates are starting to make their way through private companies.
We saw in New York yesterday announced a proof of vaccination in order to enjoy indoor spaces like gyms, restaurants, as well as event venues. So a lot of that coming to light and the need for really the legal route, as some have said, for that vaccine authorization to come through. The "New York Times" reported that the FBI is looking at before Labor Day, so it could come in the next couple of weeks, but the end of September is really the sort of unofficial deadline that the FDA has set for itself. Back to you guys.
BRIAN SOZZI: The COVID challenges certainly continue. Anjalee Khemlani, thanks so much.
