Nearly 29 percent already have Corona “boosters”

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While Austria’s vaccination coverage rate is not at an all-time high, the country is among the leaders in terms of booster vaccinations. At almost 29 percent of the population, only Hungary has more people in the EU who have received a “booster.” The rapid pace at which rich countries are providing their populations with third-party vaccinations, however, is drawing criticism. That’s because more people in the EU and the U.S. have now received a booster than have been vaccinated in all of Africa.

Just Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) appealed for more fairness in vaccine distribution. As long as there are not enough vaccines, the priority must remain to offer everyone in the world a basic vaccination of one or two doses, said Alejandro Cravioto, chairman of the WHO’s Vaccination Advisory Board, in Geneva. Experts such as Austrian virologist Florian Krammer also recalled that high vaccination coverage could also slow the emergence of new mutations. For in people who become infected despite vaccination, the virus probably multiplies more slowly than in the unvaccinated.

The WHO actually wanted to vaccinate at least ten percent of the population in every country in the world by the end of September. However, the goal has still not been reached. Admittedly, 8.3 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide and more than half of the world’s population has already received at least one dose. But as data collected by the Our World in Data platform shows, in the poorest countries, just 6.6 percent have.

Across Africa, less than eight percent have completed vaccination. There, 107 million people are thus fully vaccinated, according to “Our World in Data.” By comparison, 112 million people in the United States and the European Union alone have already received their booster vaccination (15 and 14 percent of the population, respectively). Chile leads the way in booster vaccinations with 48 percent of the population, ahead of Iceland (47) and Israel (44). In the United Kingdom, nearly one-third of the population (31 percent) has received the booster, while more than 29 percent have received it in Hungary and nearly 29 percent in Austria. Within the EU, these two countries lead the way in boosters. However, Portugal (89 percent), Malta (84) and Spain (80 percent) continue to lead in overall vaccination coverage.