The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that any of the Covid-19 vaccines it has approved for emergency use should be recognized by all countries when accepting travelers.
The call is seen as a challenge to European and North American countries which have not approved two Chinese-made vaccines over concerns that they are not effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 infection. These countries will not accept tourists and other travelers who have been vaccinated with vaccines not approved by their medical boards and so will subject them to additional Covid-19 restrictions.
The WHO has so far approved vaccines by American and European manufactures Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna Inc., AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson as well as two Chinese vaccines, Sinovac and Sinopharm.
The conflict over vaccine approval is a sign of the growing geo-poltical tension between democratic countries and the People’s Republic of China.