By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that the vaccine against the dreaded coronavirus (COVID-19) would likely be ready at the end of the year (2020).
The WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, disclosed this after the WHO’s Executive Board on Tuesday, without elaborating.
He also appealed for the support and political commitment by all leaders to ensure equal distribution of vaccines when they become available.
His words: “We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope.”
But Reuters reports that nine experimental vaccines are in the pipeline of the WHO’s COVAX global vaccine facility that aims to distribute two billion doses by the end of 2021.
Meanwhile, the two-day board meeting, which examined the global response to the pandemic, heard calls from countries including Germany, Britain and Australia for reforms to strengthen the U.N. agency.
Recall that the U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration had strongly criticised the WHO’s role in the crisis, accusing it of being too close to China and not doing enough to question Beijing’s actions late last year when the virus first emerged in Wuhan.
Tedros has however dismissed the suggestions and said his agency kept the world informed.
Three independent panels reviewing WHO performance including its 2005 International Health Regulations – which set guidelines on trade and travel restrictions imposed during health emergencies – gave updates on their work.