Key Points:
- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus intimated the readiness of the Coronavirus vaccine by end of 2020.
- The meeting took place at the WHO’s executive board.
- Tedros suggested nations to adapt to ‘Vaccine Nationalism’ and prioritize the areas where the vaccine is needed once it’s made.
- 9 untried vaccines are in the pipeline of the WHO-led COVAX global vaccine facility that aims to distribute 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.
The World Health Organization’s Director-General, Dr, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was live through a meeting on Tuesday. During the release, he hinted that a harmless and effective’ vaccine against novel coronavirus disease may be ready by year-end.
LIVE with @DrTedros at @GLOBSEC 2020 https://t.co/QBAzQ4mgGj
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) October 7, 2020
“We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope,” WHO director-general said at the meeting of WHO’s executive board.
To ensure the equal distribution of vaccines when they’re available, the WHO director-general also called for solidarity and political commitment by the global leaders.
“We need each other, we need solidarity and we need to use all the energy we have to fight the virus,” he said.
Germany, Britain and Australia contacted the two-day board meeting, which inspected the global response to the pandemic for reforms to make stronger the UN agency.
“We hope to get the real lessons that we can implement and prevent the same thing from happening. But I would like to assure you that WHO is ready to learn from this and change this organisation. During our transformation we promised this, we promised to keep change as a constant,” Tedros added, referring to his program since taking the helm in 2017.
“200 vaccines are in the development stage; a few of them in Human Trials and around 8 vaccines are in their Phase 3 or are beginning it. To stop the pandemic quickly and effectively, the world needs to exist, what we call ‘Vaccine Nationalism’,” said Dr. Tedros.
The WHO director-general also said that as the production of effective vaccines when made will be less, the countries will have to think globally and prioritize which area or which people are in extreme need of the vaccine, thus even kick-starting the global economy in one aspect.
Nine experimental vaccines are in the pipeline of the WHO-led COVAX global vaccine facility that aims to distribute 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.
No vaccine has yet been approved for widespread use by WHO.
