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COVID-19 vaccine doses expire in the West as African countries wait for the first shots
CGTN
Dr. Lilian Abbo (center), an infectious disease specialist, receives a flu vaccine and a Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, October 5, 2021. /CFP

Dr. Lilian Abbo (center), an infectious disease specialist, receives a flu vaccine and a Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, October 5, 2021. /CFP

Officials of the World Health Organization (WHO) have warned that so many of the world's poorest countries are still waiting for their first COVID-19 shots as some developed countries are giving booster shots.

Gordon Brown, former British prime minister and now the WHO ambassador for global health financing, pointed out on Thursday that lower-income countries lack the 500 million vaccine doses needed to reach WHO's 40 percent vaccination target in all countries by year-end, while 240 million doses were lying unused in the West.

He added that the unused vaccine doses are expected to increase to 600 million by the end of 2021 based on current forecasts.

According to the WHO, only nine African countries had hit a target of vaccinating 10 percent of their populations by the end of September.

The WHO on Thursday called on the world's 20 richest nations, holding a summit next week, to step up donations of COVID-19 doses to the global south where vaccinations lag.

"The G20 countries must fulfill their dose-sharing commitments immediately," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing.

Gordon Brown said that if the world's richest countries cannot mobilize for a vaccine airlift to developing countries, an epidemiological and economic "dereliction of duty will shame us all".

According to The Washington Post on Friday, U.S. communities in California who intended to share vaccines near the expiration dates with Mexico have been blocked by the White House Vaccine Task Force.

As a result, the vaccine doses were unused and discarded, causing a huge waste.

It reported that state and local officials have encountered the same problem as the Biden administration has prevented efforts to donate leftover vaccines to India and other countries who are struggling in the pandemic.

White House explained that "the vaccines in the U.S. are the property of the federal government, not the cities or states in which they are distributed."

It said the federal government is liable for their use and donation must be carried by Washington.

Health officials on the border called it "a bureaucratic hurdle" which is "impeding an easy way to further expand vaccine availability in Mexico," said The Washington Post.

"It's hard to believe that it's ever better to let doses expire and throw them away rather than put them to use," said Jess Mandel, chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine, according to the media.

Meanwhile, China has continued to make great efforts in helping more countries to have access to the COVID-19 vaccines. Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of Chinese Foreign Ministry said China has provided 60 million doses of vaccine to about 20 developing countries last week.

"As of October 17, China had provided over 1.5 billion doses of vaccine to over 100 countries," Wang said.

(With input from Reuters)

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