WHO’s Europe Chief on Vaccine Inequity

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Dr. Kluge, welcome to our program. So, that’s a pretty extraordinary number, which is, as you said, nearly quarter-of-a-million potential deaths you predict in Europe by December, if certain — well, under the current circumstances. Why do you think that is happening right now?

DR. HANS KLUGE, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: Thank you for having me on the program. Well, what we see is that, after an initial sharp increase in vaccination uptake in about 35 out of the 53 European countries, we see a plateauing. And if we look across the region, there’s a huge inequity. In fact, that’s been the need of the hour, of the day, I would say, to close the gap. In the high-income countries, 59 percent of the eligible population got the full series, in the upper-middle-income countries, 31 percent, and the lower-middle-income countries, only about 10 percent. So we’re not getting to the desired level. We’re not out of the woods yet.

AMANPOUR: The desired level is what exactly?

KLUGE: The European Technical Advisory Group advises 80 percent. But we have to take it stepwise. By the end of the year, we would like to see 40 percent. So, in the richer countries, we’re there, but not yet in the middle-income and particularly the low-income countries. And then if I look globally, we’re speaking about 1 or 2 or 3 percent, like, for example, in the African region. And that’s the reason why I invited, for example, the regional director of the WHO of the African region to my governing board. We just closed this week because we have to stand together. And what we need is political leadership and coordination, because there are excess doses. There are some estimates of 1.2 billion excess doses in the West between now and the end of the year, but we have to ensure that those excess doses get where they are most needed.