No guarantee any Covid-19 vaccine in development will work, warns, WHO chief

World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday said that the health organisation has no guarantee whether any vaccine in development for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) will work.

“We have no guarantee that any vaccine in development will work.The more candidates we test, the higher the chance we will have for a safe and efficacious vaccine,” the WHO chief said during a virtual press briefing.

He said that almost 200 vaccine candidates are being developed to tackle the disease. “Almost 200 vaccine for Covid-19 are currently in clinical and preclinical testing. The history of vaccine development tells us some will fail and some will succeed,” Tedros added.

The WHO, in coordination with global vaccine alliance group Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), has created a mechanism to enable equal distribution of any Covid vaccines among countries in the future .

“The Covax facility enables governments to spread their reach of vaccine development and ensure their population can have early access to effective vaccines.

Even more importantly, the Covax facility is the mechanism that will enable a globally coordinated roll out for the greatest possible impact,” the health organisation chief said.

Reminding the countries that the race to find a cure for Covid-19 is a collaboration and not a competition, Ghebreyesus said, “The Covax facility will help bring the pandemic under control, save lives and escalate the economic recovery, and ensure that the race for Covid-19 vaccine is a collaboration, not a contest.”

As the countries move ahead in their quest to find a vaccine for coronavirus, the WHO chief urged nations to work together, pointing out that it was in every country’s best interest to find vaccine for Covid-19.

“This is not charity. It is in every country’s best interest. We sink or we swim together. The fastest route to end the pandemic and accelerating the global economic recovery is to ensure some people are vaccinate in all countries, not all people in some countries,” the chief said.

Before the health and finance ministers of the G20 countries met to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit organisation had alerted on the situation based on the agreements struck between the rich nations with the five leading vaccine candidates that are currently in the final stage of clinical trials according to the data collected by Airfinity.