Covid-19 vaccine unlikely before early 2021, warns WHO

The Oxford vaccine is being celebrated the world over but the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that while the results are promising there are many stages it will have to go through.

In an official statement, Adrian Hill, co-director of the Oxford vaccine, says that the results of the vaccine have to go through many stages. The first use of the vaccine cannot be expected before 2021.

The WHO says it is working hard to ensure fair distribution of the vaccines. In the meantime, it is key to suppress the spread of the coronavirus. The WHO is working to expand access to potential vaccines and to help scale-up production capacity.

We need to be fair about this, because this is a global good. Vaccines for this pandemic are not for the wealthy, they are not for the poor, they are for everybody. – Mike Ryan, World Health Organisation

The United States government will pay US$1.95 billion to buy 100 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer Inc and German biotech BioNTech if it proves safe and effective,.

To develop the Oxford vaccine, Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has joined hands with the United Kingdom and 20 million vaccines will be developed between them. The Indian government is also showing full support to this partnership.

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