Srinagar: As more than 150 Coronavirus vaccines are in various stages of development in several countries with a few making advanced progress in clinical trials, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned world governments against “vaccine nationalism” and urged leaders to make plans on how to share life-saving inoculations against coronavirus.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the threat of COVID can only be snuffed out with global coordination, especially when a vaccine is developed.
“There should be a global consensus to make a vaccine, any product, a global public product,” Adhanom said during a panel discussion.
“And this is a political choice, a political commitment. And we want political leaders to decide on this. Vaccine nationalism is not good. It will not help us,” he added.
Ghebreyesus said that if wealthier nations want to get rid of the virus, then they must share the vaccine. The pandemic cannot be eradicated if poor nations remain exposed to the virus.
“For the world to recover faster, it has to recover together, because it’s a globalised world. Part of the world or a few countries cannot be a safe haven and recover. The damage from COVID could be less when those countries who have the funding committed to this,” he said to Aspen Security Forum in the United States, via video-link from the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva.
He said that the prevalence of the virus anywhere poses a risk to lives everywhere.
“On Friday, India reported the spike of 61,537 COVID cases 933 deaths in a day, according to the Health Ministry of India.
With this, the country’s COVID tally has surged to 20,88,612, including 6,19,088 active cases, 14,27,006 cured/discharged/migrated and 42,518 deaths, the ministry said.
In India, a Pune based vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India (SII) has decided to manufacture 100 million COVID vaccine doses which will be capped at Rs 225 per dose.
There are over 150 coronavirus vaccines are in various stages of development in several countries with a few making advanced progress in clinical trials.
While the Oxford coronavirus vaccine and a Chinese vaccine showing positive results in the first round of human trials, the Moderna has shown positive results among mice and developed immunity against the disease upon testing.
India’s Covaxin, developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has also entered the human trial stage and is expected to come out with results in a month.
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