COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be Made Available By Year-End, Says WHO

A COVID-19 vaccine may be made accessible by year-end, according to the head of the World Health Organization (WHO).

To ensure equal dissemination of novel coronavirus vaccines once they are made accessible, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for political devotion and unity by all leaders.

'Hope'

Tedros did not expound on the news. But, he stated in his closing statement to the WHO's Executive Board meeting that evaluated the global response to the coronavirus, "We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope," reported The National.

Everyone across the globe wants for the COVID-19 pandemic to end as soon as possible. A supposed ultimate solution is that there should be a vaccine developed.

Such remarks by the WHO's leader were part of the meeting of the WHO board of directors. Countries that participated included the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia, which called for revamps to bolster the multilateral body.

Key Priorities

Tedros specified essential priorities for the next three months as the northern hemisphere enters the influenza season and as cases spike worldwide.

These involve fortifying the ACT Accelerator, an initiative spearheaded by the WHO geared towards production and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, speeding up development, vaccines, and treatments.

Also Read: No Second Debate if Trump Remains to Be COVID-19 Positive, Says Biden

9 Experimental Vaccines

Nine experimental COVID-19 vaccines are parts of the series of the WHO's COVAX global vaccine facility targetting to disseminate 2 billion doses by 2021's year-end.

Criticism Over WHO's Role in the Global Health Crisis

United States President Donald Trump's government has denounced the WHO's role in the pandemic. It accused the WHO of being too close to China and not making adequate efforts to question Beijing's actions in late 2019 when the first case of COVID-19 surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

WHO is looking to disseminate 2 billion doses by 2020's end. The tally of countries that have joined the WHO's COVAX aim is 172.

For the WHO's initiative, some nations, including Russia, the United States, and China, have refused to join to secure their homegrown vaccines.

Tedros further added, "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 organization. During our transformation, we promised this, we promised to keep change as a constant," reported Times Now.

The aforementioned two-day board meeting evaluated the global response to the advent of COVID-19.

Tedros has shrugged off such suggestions that the agency's efforts are inadequate and stated his agency has been providing data to the world.

Three independent panels assessing the WHO's performance, including its 2005 International Health Regulations, provided news updates on their work.

The comments from the WHO head's claimed probable COVID-19 vaccine by the year-end arrived even as drug creators and scientists across the globe are racing to develop a safe and effectual vaccine.