World Health Organization (WHO)’s Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has shared a very positive outlook on the COVID-19 vaccine’s availability stating that it is possible to have a cure against the pandemic by end of the year.
While speaking at the end of a two-day meeting of the WHO’s Executive Board on the pandemic, it’s head observed that “We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope.”
Reiterating the need to be united to fight the pandemic, the WHO Director-General remakers that leadership across the globe needs to ensure that vaccines are shared equally once they are available for general administration.
“We need each other, we need solidarity and we need to use all the energy we have to fight the virus,” Dr. Ghebreyesus said.
Also Read: COVID-19 vaccine trials on children should resume immediately: Oxford
Emphasizing on the role of leadership across the globe, the WHO head remarked that “Especially for the vaccines and other products which are in the pipeline, the most important tool is a political commitment from our leaders especially in the equitable distribution of the vaccines.” He observed that the WHO-led COVAX global vaccine facility has as much as nine COVID-19 vaccine candidates under the project.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates opined that things rich economies could gain normalcy by late 2021 if an efficient vaccine for COVID-19 is ready and gets distributed properly at scale. “By late next year you can have things going back pretty close to normal – that`s the best case,” he added while speaking at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council.
“We still don’t know whether these vaccines will succeed. Now the capacity will take time to ramp up. And so the allocation within the US, and between the US and other countries will be a very top point of contention,” Mr. Gates replied.
Related: COVID-19 can spread through small air particles: CDC
