WHO estimates COVID-19 boosters needed yearly for most vulnerable

The World Health Organization (WHO) forecasts that people most vulnerable to COVID-19, such as the elderly, will need to get an annual vaccine booster to be protected against variants, an internal document seen by Reuters shows.

The WHO couldn’t forecast a long weekend holiday.

The WHO’s function is to provide an announcement service for its funders. And as we have already witnessed, it better not deviate.

In the more optimistic situation, all vaccines in the pipeline would get authorised and production capacity would ramp up to about 16 billion doses to meet demand.

I wondered what mysterious, booming ca-ching sound was this morning... it must have been the cash registers a Big Pharm reacting to this "optimistic" situation.

Boasters huh. Clearly these pharmacy companies are just rolling in our cash each year and want the virus to keep going.

The WHO’s function is to provide an announcement service for its funders. And as we have already witnessed, it better not deviate.

Boasters huh. Clearly these pharmacy companies are just rolling in our cash each year and want the virus to keep going.

Thinking the boosters (if they are actually needed, recent evidence points in the opposite direction) could only be produced by the current companies is naïve.

Since it has been shown that inactivated viruses or purified antigen is a safe and effective way to stimulate the immunity there is no reason to use special technologies to produce the boosters, the hurdle is simply much lower for them than for the priming shots. As long as there is previous immunity the task is simple, and every country that currently produce any kind of vaccine can do the same with the boosters (including many developing countries), no need to buy them from anyone.

Even the clinical trials are going to be much simpler, antibody levels can be used as a surrogate for protection for boosters, not need to find out how many people get infected in groups of immunized people, just confirm their antibodies go up after the booster.

The WHO’s function is to provide an announcement service for its funders. And as we have already witnessed, it better not deviate.

Yeah, just like governments actually represent the corporations rather than the people, similarly health agencies like the WHO as well as national ones actually represent the pharmaceutical companies rather than caring for people's health.

The pharmaceutical companies are private for-profit multibillion dollar corporations and we're being forced by law to buy their products.

Again, nothing says so, there is absolutely no reason why generic boosters can't be easily produced, giving exactly 0 profits to any pharmaceutical companies. Also, vaccines as a requirement for a traveling is nothing new, the yellow card for example has been in use since before WWII.

Yeah, just like governments actually represent the corporations rather than the people, similarly health agencies like the WHO as well as national ones actually represent the pharmaceutical companies rather than caring for people's health.

How come then that the WHO easily and quickly accepted the use of drugs like dexamethasone as safe and very effective in preventing complications and deaths by COVID? Using dexamethasone instead of drugs that would be much more profitable is evidence of exactly the opposite of what you think.

WHO shilling for its funders.

Whodathunkit?

"Again, nothing says so, there is absolutely no reason why generic boosters can't be easily produced, giving exactly 0 profits to any pharmaceutical companies. "

Not true. Ever heard of patents?

Most businessmen have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97CfZ0tixqM

The WHO couldn’t forecast a long weekend holiday.

The WHO’s function is to provide an announcement service for its funders. And as we have already witnessed, it better not deviate.

Indeed!

WHO shilling for its funders.

Really? how much fund do Serbia, Indonesia, Mexico or Cuba provide? because those are countries that would have no difficulty at all to produce the boosters for the WHO.

Not true. Ever heard of patents?

Patents would be irrelevant, any country with a national regulatory agency recognized by the WHO can produce one version of the vaccine good enough to become a booster without ever needing any specific protocol or technology, no viral vectors, no mRNA involved. It can be as simple as killing and purifying the viruses or producing the protein directly on the lab. A soon as any WHO collaboration laboratory test its version and proves it is safe and can increase the neutralizing antibodies then it becomes a generic booster without ever needing to pay anybody for using it.

Patents would be irrelevant, any country with a national regulatory agency recognized by the WHO can produce one version of the vaccine good enough to become a booster without ever needing any specific protocol or technology, no viral vectors, no mRNA involved.

So why hasn’t it happened? And if Covid is such an emergency, why would any country with a national regulatory agency need any recognition from the WHO?

Hint: they don’t.

You go from learning that these vaccines are EUA and experimental earlier this month, to now stating how simple it is produce a booster.

The learning curve is impressive.

Do you think any Pharma company or regulatory agency in the US waits for WHO recognition. Pharma wrestled EUA status out of the FDA, regardless of the WHO. Moderna was not even recognized as a major player prior to the Covid debacle.

The WHO simply complies with the demands of its largest donor(s).

It can be as simple as killing and purifying the viruses or producing the protein directly on the lab.

Telling on the board that their "high tech novelty mRNA" was not needed after all, I believe you would say anything in order to push those products

The WHO recommendations and the 2+2=5 Science Guy.

What next in the name global profits (sorry … health)?

WHOooooo are you...Who-who-who-who?? I really wanna know!!

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO) was elected in May 2017.

His surprise appointment that year of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador outraged Western donors and activists and he was forced to withdraw it.

Tedros, who goes by the name of Dr. Tedros, holds a doctorate of philosophy in community health and a master of science in immunology of infectious diseases.

He is the first director-general in the WHO's 72-year history not to be a medical doctor. 

I would imagine his honorary degree in underwater basket weaving wasn’t recognized. Which is a shame because it does require some skill.

Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University Law School, told Reuters: "He's very political, there is no question. And sometimes he is too political."

So why hasn’t it happened? And if Covid is such an emergency, why would any country with a national regulatory agency need any recognition from the WHO?

Hint: they don’t.

You are terribly confused about many things, there is such a thing as doing something to make emergencies worse, it is completely desirable to qualify production of drugs and vaccines even during emergencies, if only so what happened in Brazil is not repeated worldwide. Also why do you automatically assume the boosters will be needed in an emergency situation? nothing in the article even points out to that.

And nobody has produced boosters because they have not even been proved to be necessary in the first place.

You go from learning that these vaccines are EUA and experimental earlier this month, to now stating how simple it is produce a booster.

In Japan? they are not, they are vaccines according to the PMDA. A booster becomes easier to make thanks to the information derived from millions of vaccinations that demonstrate the antigen is not dangerous itself, and also because there is no need to directly test for protection, an elevation of antibodies becomes an adequate surrogate because the person already developed protection before, I already explained this in my previous comment, you should read it.

The WHO simply complies with the demands of its largest donor(s).

Again, boosters in no way require the investment in development and testing that the origianl vaccines did, they can simply be produced on top of all the already available information from global vaccination. And that is even if they are necessary, which is not a sure thing, nothing in the document from the WHO says this is the case.

Telling on the board that their "high tech novelty mRNA" was not needed after all, I believe you would say anything in order to push those products

That is false, the vaccines have been essential to prevent uncountable deaths, they were all very necessary, the technology itself is not necessary for the boosters, which have much reduced requirements for development and testing.

The WHO recommendations and the 2+2=5 Science Guy.

What next in the name global profits (sorry … health)?

So when you can't prove any of your points your resource is what exactly?

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO) was elected in May 2017.

How exactly this proves any of your misunderstanding as right?

It is well known that the WHO was made a much more political organization from 2009 when a lot of its leverage was cut by the same countries that now complain the most about the WHO not having any. Not being able to contradict or attack any country of the world means the organization is unable to do a lot of its functions without heavy use of diplomatic resources.

In this case this still do not mean that the automatic source of boosters is any pharmaceutical company, Specially with the plenty collaborative resources from scientists and experts around the world that support the organization and can fill that void without any problem.

"So when you can't prove any of your points your resource is what exactly?"

He sure has proven a lot more points in his arguments than you.

He sure has proven a lot more points in his arguments than you.

For example?

It should be easy to understand why COVID has been an emergency and the vaccines a very good tool to save lives, but boosters may not be needed until after the emergency has passed, or ever. (this also means they can be developed without needing to pay for any patents as someone mistakenly believed)

Boosters do not require (by definition) to prime the immune response from zero, just reactivate it, so they are much easier to prove effective and safe.

There has been no improper treatment of any vaccine to get EUAs, and all vaccines used in the general population are still much safer than the natural infection.

You are terribly confused about many things, there is such a thing as doing something to make emergencies worse, it is completely desirable to qualify production of drugs and vaccines even during emergencies, if only so what happened in Brazil is not repeated worldwide. Also why do you automatically assume the boosters will be needed in an emergency situation? nothing in the article even points out to that.

Please refrain from accusing posters of being confused. I don’t assume boosters will be required for anything.

As I have repeatedly stated. For the majority of the demographic, there is NO emergency. It was expanded well beyond the high risk minority most vulnerable to Covid-19.

And that’s an important issue. Because I also realize that an “emergency “ can be fabricated and declared with very little justification.

Your comments concerning boosters, how they can be produced, and who will produce them once again reveal a gross misunderstanding of reality. And industry behavior.

I would advise you to personally examine the term “confusion” much more carefully.