Vaccination strategy in long-running Ebola outbreak comes under fire

The World Health Organization’s vaccination strategy in the long-running Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is coming under fire, with Doctors Without Borders accusing the agency of rationing vaccines and calling for an independent committee to ensure “more transparent management” of the situation.

The broadside, issued Monday, follows a prolonged effort by Doctors Without Borders to campaign for wider use of an as-yet unlicensed vaccine, developed by Merck. More than 226,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered in DRC’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces since August 2018, but Doctors Without Borders, one of the nonprofit groups playing a leading role in the response to the crisis, has argued that those doses are being distributed based on overly narrow criteria.

“We think that upping the pace of vaccination is necessary and feasible. At least 2,000-2,500 people could be vaccinated each day, instead of 500-1,000 as is currently the