WHO chief lambasts vaccine profits, demands elderly go first

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization chief says it’s “not right” that younger, healthier adults in wealthier countries get vaccinated against COVID-19 before older people in poorer countries. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus kicked off WHO’s week-long executive board meeting by lamenting that one poor country got only 25 vaccine doses while more than 39 million doses have been made in nearly 50 richer nations. He says that “the world is on the brink of a moral catastrophic failure” in assuring access to vaccines. The WHO chief also raised the issue of the “profits” that drugmakers can make in richer countries. Austria’s envoy raised questions about WHO’s program to get vaccines to poorer countries.