The World Health Organization hopes that hundreds of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine can be produced this year and 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said on Thursday.
WHO is developing plans to help decide who should receive the first doses once the vaccine is approved, she said.
Priority would be given to front-line workers such as doctors, those who are vulnerable because of their age or other illness, and those who work or live in high-transmission settings such as prisons and homes. care.
“I am hopeful, I am optimistic. But vaccine development is a complex endeavor, it has a lot of uncertainties,” she said. “The good thing is that we have many vaccines and platforms, so even if the first one fails, or the second one fails, we must not give up hope, we must not give up.”
A dozen potential vaccines are currently being tested in humans, in the hope that a vaccine against the infection may be available in the coming months. Countries have already started to sign agreements with pharmaceutical companies to order doses, even before vaccines are proven to work.
Swaminathan described the ambition for hundreds of millions of doses this year as optimistic, and the hope for up to 2 billion doses of three different vaccines next year as a “big deal.”
She added that genetic analysis data collected to date has shown that the new coronavirus has not yet undergone a mutation that could alter the severity of the disease it causes.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
