The World Health Organization (WHO) hopes that hundreds of Covid-19 vaccine doses could be produced by the end of the year and be targeted at those most vulnerable to the virus.
There is no vaccine yet, but WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said experts worldwide were working on more than 200 possibilities. Around 10 potential vaccines are currently undergoing human trials.
“I’m hopeful, I’m optimistic,” she explained.
“But vaccine development is a complex undertaking, it comes with a lot of uncertainty The good thing is, we have many vaccines and platforms so even if the first one fails, or the second ones fails, we shouldn’t lose hope, we shouldn’t give up.”
“If we’re very lucky, there will be one or two successful candidates before the end of this year,” she said. The priority recipients would probably be frontline workers such as medics, those vulnerable because of age or illness and those who are in high-transmission settings like care homes or prisons.
