Up to eight top candidates for coronavirus vaccine exist, says WHO

The Director General of WHO said work has been accelerated to develop a vaccine for Covid-19
AP

Work is underway on up to eight leading candidates for a vaccine to combat the coronavirus, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) chief on Monday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a UN Economic and Social Council video briefing that two months ago it was thought that developing a vaccine could take up to 12 to 18 months.

But he said an accelerated effort was under way and now there are more than a hundred candidates with around eight top ones.

World leaders from 40 countries, organisations and banks for research, treatment and testing have helped to accelerate efforts to develop a vaccine by pledging £6.4 billion a week ago.

Dr Tedros said additional funds would be required to speed up the development of a vaccine, but more importantly to produce enough “to make sure that this vaccine reaches everyone — (and) there’s no one be left behind”.

“We have good candidates now,” said the Director General. “The top ones are around seven, eight. But we have more than a hundred candidates.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there are more than a hundred candidates for a vaccine 
AFP via Getty Images

“We are focusing on the few candidates we have which can bring probably better results and accelerating those candidates with better potential.”

Dr Tedros did not identify the top candidates.

Since January, he said, the WHO had been “working with thousands of researchers all over the world to accelerate and track vaccine development from developing animal models to clinical trial designs and everything in between”.

Dr Tedros said there was also a consortium of more than 400 scientists involved in vaccine development and diagnostics.

The WHO chief stressed Covid-19 was “very contagious and it’s a killer,” with more than four million cases now reported to WHO and some 280,000 lives lost.

While new cases were declining in Western Europe, they were increasing in Eastern Europe, Africa, southeast Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and other regions, he said.

Dr Tedros explained that as the response to the coronavirus continues, nations must also lay the foundations for a healthy, safer and fairer world.

Coronavirus infecting a cell - In pictures

1/7

“The world spends around $7.5 trillion (£6.1 trillion) on health care each year, almost 10 per cent of global GDP, but the best investments are in promoting health and in preventing disease at the primary health care level which will save lives and save money,” Dr Tedros said.

The head of the International Labor Organisation, Guy Ryder, said the UN agency estimated the equivalent of 305 million full-time jobs would be lost around the world in the second quarter of this year, ending on June 30.

Mr Ryder said by comparison, only 22 million full-time jobs were lost immediately when the financial crisis hit in 2008-2009, “so you can see we’re in an entirely different place.”

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the briefing all nations were “in it together” but the immediate priority must be the most vulnerable countries and communities.

She called for a new debt relief program for vulnerable countries so their economies can recover.

And she said measures to protect and stimulate the economy, from cash transfers to credits and loans must be targeted at women “who make up the majority of those in the hardest-hit informal economy, and who are at the forefront of the community response.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in