Experts say vaccination, including the use of boosters, is especially important for people at risk of severe disease.
GENEVA — An expert group convened by the World Health Organization said Tuesday it “strongly supports urgent and broad access” to booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine amid the global spread of omicron, capping a reversal of the U.N. agency’s repeated insistence last year that boosters weren’t necessary for healthy people and contributed to vaccine inequity.
It said vaccination, including the use of boosters, was especially important for people at risk of severe disease. The updated recommendations came from an 18-member advisory group that focuses on the impact of “variants of concern” — the most worrying variants, like omicron — and assesses the vaccines’ effectiveness against them.
WHO said it is continuing to monitor the global spread of omicron, including a “stealth” version known as BA.2, which has been documented to have re-infected some people after an initial case of omicron. There’s mixed research on whether it causes more severe disease, but vaccines appear just as effective against it.