‘False sense of security’ around COVID vaccines: WHO - Aljazeera.com

The chief of the World Health Organization has said coronavirus vaccines help reduce transmission of the dominant Delta variant by 40 percent and warned that people were falling into a “false sense of security” after vaccination.

In a news briefing in Geneva on Wednesday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said many vaccinated people were wrongly thinking receiving the COVID shot meant they no longer needed to take any other precautions.

“In many countries and communities, we are concerned about a false sense of security that vaccines have ended the pandemic, and that people who are vaccinated do not need to take any other precautions,” Tedros told reporters.

Tedros voiced hope that a consensus can be found at World Trade Organization ministerial next week for an IP waiver for pandemic vaccines, already supported by more than 100 countries.

The WHO chief said he was encouraged about a “broad consensus” being reached on an international agreement on preventing future pandemics at the UN’s special session of the World Health Assembly, calling it a “unique opportunity”?

Moreover, the WHO director-general said that while the world continued to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, it “cannot lose sight of the many other threats to health that people face around the world, including antimicrobial resistance.”