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The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Tuesday that a vaccine against the new coronavirus could be ready by the end of 2020, the agency said.
Speaking publicly about the end of a two-day meeting of the WHO Executive Board in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the official said: “We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we can have one. That is what we hope ”, he stressed without giving more details on the subject.
Currently there are nine experimental vaccines in advanced stage, which are part of the global vaccine distribution mechanism, COVAX, led by the world body, whose main objective is to guarantee the availability of two billion doses of the drug by the end of 2021.
This optimistic outlook from the WHO regarding the public health crisis has been a constant. It is recalled that in an opinion article published last week in the British newspaper ‘Independent’, Tedros stressed that “the most important lesson is always the same: whatever the stage of the pandemic in a country, it is never too late to change the course of things.
Despite the substantial increase in the number of cases, at a time when Covid-19 has infected more than 35.5 million people and caused more than a million deaths, the official tries to send a message of “hope” and calm. “This is a difficult time for the world, but there are signs of hope encouraging us now and in the near future,” he wrote.
“More than a million people have already lost their lives to covid-19, and many others suffer from the pandemic,” said the expert, also highlighting the unprecedented speed with which the world has managed to develop tests and mobilize to find effective and safe vaccines as soon as possible.
Tedros also defended the importance of “sustainable investment” in public health systems to successfully combat the virus. Although the American continent has been the most affected so far, Uruguay has reported the lowest number of cases and deaths in Latin America, both in total and per capita ”, precisely because of the“ robustness ”of its health system.
“This is not by chance, Uruguay has one of the most robust and resilient health systems in Latin America, with sustainable investments based on the political consensus on the importance of investing in public health,” he added.
