COVID-19 Vaccine May Take One Year To Be Available, Says WHO Chief

With the constant efforts of the scientists around the globe, a COVID-19 vaccine will possibly be available within a year or even a few months earlier than that, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation confirmed recently.

Reuters

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the development on Thursday during a meeting with the European Parliament's Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety.

The WHO Chief based the estimation on the prediction of the scientists working on the Coronavirus vaccine, in response to a question asked by many members of the European Parliament.

He said, ¡°Hoping that there will be a vaccine, the estimate is we may have a vaccine within one year. If accelerated, it could be even less than that, but by a couple of months. That¡¯s what scientists are saying.¡±

The hope mentioned here highlights the persistent doubt that there ever will be a vaccine. Tedros confirmed this by saying, ¡°It would be very difficult to say for sure that we will have a vaccine.¡± ¡°We never had a vaccine for a coronavirus. So this will be, when discovered, hoping that it will be discovered, it will be the first one,¡± he added as per a report by Reuters.

He further mentioned over 100 COVID-19 vaccine candidates in various stages of development around the globe. With this, the WHO chief also highlighted the importance of global cooperation to develop, manufacture and distribute these vaccines once developed.

COVID-19 vaccine challenge

(Representative Image: Reuters)

Ghebreyesus acknowledged that even though a potent vaccine will be available shortly, it is its availability and distribution that can pose a challenge. ¡°Political will¡± is required for a successful deployment of the vaccine around the globe.

One of the options is to provide the COVID-19 vaccine only to the sections of the society which are most vulnerable to the virus.

In addition to the vaccine, the WHO chief urged all countries in the world to strengthen primary health care and crisis preparedness. With the COVID-19 pandemic as an eye-opening example, he said that health should not be seen as a cost but an investment, as per an IANS report.

He also highlighted the still rising infection rate of the COVID-19, saying that it is very much still in circulation globally, with more than four million new cases within the last month.

COVID-19 blame game

Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Representative Image: Reuters)

Members of European Parliament asked the global community to cooperate in ¡°developing, manufacturing and distributing vaccines against COVID-19.¡± They even highlighted the important role of the WHO in the troubled times.

Some, however, pointed out the mistakes made by the organisation in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Director-General admitted by saying that everyone makes mistakes. To rectify these and learn from these mistakes, an independent panel will soon evaluate the WHO response to the pandemic, the DG assured the members.