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ZURICH (Reuters) – AstraZeneca’s pause of an experimental coronavirus vaccine after a participant’s illness is a “wake-up call” but should not discourage researchers, the World Organization’s chief scientist said on Thursday. Health (WHO).
In this illustration, taken on September 9, 2020, a test tube labeled with the vaccine is seen in front of the AstraZeneca logo. REUTERS / Dado Ruvic / Illustration
“This is a wake-up call to recognize that there are ups and downs in clinical development and that we have to be prepared,” Soumya Swaminathan said in a virtual briefing from Geneva.
“We don’t have to get discouraged. These things happen.”
Governments are desperate for a vaccine to help end the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused more than 900,000 deaths and global economic turmoil, and the WHO had pointed to AstraZeneca, which is being developed with the University of Oxford, as the most promising.
However, the drugmaker suspended late-stage trials this week after a participant in Britain suffered neurological symptoms.
“It is a race against this virus and it is a race to save lives. It is not a race between companies and it is not a race between countries, ”added Mike Ryan, WHO chief of emergencies.
More than 27.95 million people have been infected worldwide, according to a Reuters tally.
WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said a combination of factors is helping to reduce death rates in Europe, including earlier case detection and better clinical care.
“We are in a better position to prevent the virus from infecting vulnerable populations,” he said, warning, however, that the long-term effects of the disease were not yet known.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who on Thursday increased his fundraising request to $ 38 billion for the agency’s ACT Accelerator program to combat COVID-19, declined to comment directly on the reports from that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, had downplayed the dangers of the virus while criticizing the WHO response. .
“What worries me the most is what I’ve been saying all along: lack of solidarity,” Tedros said. “When we are divided, it is a good opportunity for the virus.”
Reporting by Michael Shields, John Miller and Matthias Blamont; Written by Andrew Cawthorne; Edited by Janet Lawrence
