WHO has 7-8 ‘top’ candidates for coronavirus

NEW YORK: The World Health Organization chief has said there are around seven or eight “top” candidates for a vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus and work on them is being accelerated.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a UN Economic and Social Council video briefing the original thinking two months ago was that it may take 12 to 18 months for a vaccine.

He said an accelerated effort is underway, helped by 7.4 billion euros ($8 billion) pledged a week ago by leaders from 40 countries, organizations, and banks for research, treatment and testing.

He said the $8 billion will not be enough, and additional funds will be needed 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 left behind.”

“We have good candidates now. The top ones are around seven, eight,” Tedros said. “We have more than a hundred candidates. We are focusing on the few candidates we have which can bring probably better results and accelerating those candidates with better potential,” he said.

Tedros did not identify the top candidates. Since January, he said, “WHO has 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.”

Tedros said there is also a consortium of more than 400 scientists involved in vaccine development and diagnostics. The WHO chief stressed that COVID-19 is “very contagious and it’s a killer,” with over 4 million cases now reported and almost 275,000 lives lost.

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

Tedros said “the pandemic is teaching us many painful lessons,” especially the importance of having strong national and regional health systems. 

He said more than 5 billion people will not access these essential services by 2030. He stressed that as the response to COVID-19 continues, nations must also lay the foundations for a healthy, safer and fairer world.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the briefing that all nations are “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.