Officials from the World Health Organization have warned that vaccine inequality is likely to create more variants, criticizing blanket booster programs in developed nations, CNBC reported Dec. 22.
"Blanket booster programs are likely to prolong the pandemic, rather than ending it, by diverting supply to countries that already have high levels of vaccination coverage, giving the virus more opportunity to spread and mutate," Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said in a press conference.
Omicron's emergence in South Africa is thought to be tied to vaccine inequality, where just 26 percent of people are vaccinated, according to experts. The variant is believed to have originated from an HIV patient in South Africa.