ZURICH - AstraZeneca’s pause of an experimental vaccine for the coronavirus after the illness of a participant is a “wake-up call” but should not discourage researchers, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) chief scientist said on Thursday.
“This is a wake-up call to recognise that there are ups and downs in clinical development and that we have to be prepared,” Soumya Swaminathan told a virtual briefing from Geneva.
“We do not have to be 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 flagged AstraZeneca’s, being developed with Oxford University, as the most promising.
“It’s a race against this virus, and it’s a race to save lives. It’s not a race between companies, and it’s not a race between countries,” added WHO’s head of emergencies Mike Ryan.
More than 27.95 million people have been reported infected globally, according to a Reuters tally.
“We are in a better position to prevent the virus from infecting vulnerable populations,” she said, cautioning, however, that the disease’s long-term effects were still not known.
WHO General Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who on Thursday upped his fundraising plea to $38 billion for the agency’s ACT Accelerator programme to fight Covid-19, declined to comment directly on reports that U.S. President Donald Trump had downplayed the virus’s dangers while criticising the WHO’s response.
“What worries me the most is what I have been saying all along: a lack of solidarity,” Tedros said. “When we are divided, it is a good opportunity for the virus.”
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