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At a time when the good news about a Covid-19 vaccine brings a burst of optimism, the public’s distrust could make useless this weapon that for the moment counts among the most promising, warns the head of the vaccination division of the ” World Health Organization Katherine O’Brien.
“A vaccine that stays in a freezer or refrigerator or on a shelf and is not used does nothing to stop this pandemic.”
On Monday, American Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech announced their vaccine was 90 percent effective, according to preliminary results. Professor O’Brien found the results “extremely important” and said she hoped that data from many more vaccines would soon follow, even in the last phase of human testing.
“If comprehensive data shows that one or more of these vaccines are very, very effective, it would be good news to equip our toolbox with a new pandemic tool.”
Trust issue
But she is deeply concerned about the misinformation and conspiracy theories that are increasing the ranks of anti-vaccines as the pandemic is far from under control and has already claimed nearly 1.3 million deaths. It is necessary to increase “the confidence that WHO will not make any concessions on the safety or efficacy of the vaccines it is evaluating”.
Dr. O’Brien acknowledged that a number of important unknowns remained regarding candidate vaccines, such as the duration of protection they will be able to provide and perhaps equally important the big question: “This changes – is there a chance you could pass on (the disease) to someone else? “
Gigantic logistic challenge
WHO is counting on the arrival of these vaccines in the coming months, but is preparing without delay for the gigantic logistical challenge of inoculating billions of people as quickly as possible. In the meantime, it has developed recommendations for giving the first vaccines to those who need them most.
“The goal is for each country to be able to immunize 20% of its population by the end of 2021, which would really help meet the needs of health workers and populations with top priority, therefore, such as supply will continue to increase, we expect to receive many more doses in 2022 “.
Access will also depend on the ability to manufacture vaccines in astronomical quantities, to package them, to transport them at times while keeping them frozen at very low temperatures and therefore to find sufficient staff to inject them.
“A highly effective, safe and manufacturable vaccine is of public health value only if it actually reaches the people it needs to protect and if it is used extensively by the populations. This is the next challenge. […] To achieve a real impact of vaccines, it is at the distribution level that we play and that means climbing Everest, “Katherine O’Brien.
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