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Geneva (AFP)
Launching vaccines to combat the Covid-19 pandemic will not in itself eliminate the deadly coronavirus, the World Health Organization said Friday.
WHO warned against complacency and what it said was a misconception that, as vaccines are on the near horizon, the crisis is over.
“Vaccines are not zero Covid,” WHO director of emergencies Michael Ryan said at a virtual press conference.
“Vaccines and vaccination will add an important, important and powerful tool to the toolkit we have. But alone, they won’t do the job.”
Britain became the first Western country to approve a general-purpose vaccine on Wednesday, putting pressure on other countries to quickly follow suit.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said advances on vaccines “give us all a boost and we can now begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
However, WHO is concerned about the growing perception that the pandemic is over.
“Many places are seeing very high transmission of the virus, which is putting tremendous pressure on hospitals, intensive care units and healthcare workers.”
Global coronavirus infections surpassed 65 million on Friday.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1.5 million people since the outbreak in China last December, according to an official source tally compiled by AFP.
– ‘Life and death’ –
“The pandemic still has a long way to go and the decisions made by leaders and citizens in the coming days will determine both the short-term course of the virus and when this pandemic will end,” Tedros said.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO COVID-19 technical manager, added that these decisions “can mean life and death for us, life and death for our family”.
According to the WHO overview of candidate vaccines, 51 are currently being tested in humans, 13 of which have reached the final stage of mass testing.
Another 163 vaccine candidates are being developed in laboratories for possible human trials.
“I’ve seen vaccines transform the world and change the course of epidemics, and I expect these vaccines and those to come will,” Ryan said.
But he warned that people had to recognize that the vaccine “won’t be with everyone early next year.”
Healthcare workers, the elderly and people with underlying conditions will have priority – a choice that “will take away much of the pain from this pandemic. But it won’t end the transmission alone,” Ryan said.
Tedros said he was happy to be vaccinated in front of the camera to help promote public confidence, but he wouldn’t skip the line to do so.
“I’d be happy to do it” but “I have to make sure it’s my turn,” he said.
© 2020 AFP
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