WHO says emergency authorisation of COVID-19 vaccines needs great care

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, a vaccine is being desperately sought by countries across the globe. While every country has the right to approve drugs such as a potential COVID vaccine without the completion of full trials, the World Health Organisation has stated that great care must be taken and untested drugs and vaccines should not be approved lightly.

World must tread lightly: WHO

According to reports, these remarks came from WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan who was speaking at a news conference following the announcement by the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that he would be open to bypassing normal approval procedures for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Last month, Russia announced world’s first COVID vaccine, but the final human trials are still underway. Countries like Iran have claimed that they wish to wait for the opinion of the international community and the approval of the World Health Organisation before entering negotiations with Russia for their prospective vaccine.

Countries must re-open with care: WHO

Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus in a recent statement said that countries that are planning to re-open should ensure they have full control of the virus. He added that re-opening one’s country in a reckless manner was a ‘recipe for disaster’ and can jeopardise all the effort they have made and force them back into a lockdown.

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The WHO chief further added that the deadly coronavirus thrived when the world was divided and it could only be defeated if the world put up a united front.

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected over 25 million people worldwide with the global death toll reaching over 800,000.

As per the John Hopkins coronavirus resource centre, the United States has reported a total of at least 6 million positive virus cases and has a death toll of 183,601. The US currently has the highest number of reported cases in the world, making it the epicentre of the deadly virus.

Read: Tedros: 'Never Too Late' To Control Virus Outbreak

Read: WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Calls COVID-19 Pandemic 'once-in-a-century' Crisis