Good afternoon to all.
A safe and effective vaccine is key to controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and paving the way towards recovery.
Ordinarily it takes between five and 15 years to develop a new vaccine.
But these are not ordinary times.
The pandemic has already caused close to 1 million deaths globally and disrupted the lives and livelihoods of billions.
The mandatory process to ensure vaccine safety and efficacy is sought to be compressed into a 12- to 18-month period.
But the world cannot afford to take shortcuts.
Any vaccine that is rolled out must meet all benchmarks for safety and efficacy.
Extraordinary progress has been made.
In addition to facilitating research and development, the COVAX Facility – which WHO co-leads – is supporting the building of manufacturing capabilities and the pre-purchasing of vaccines through its Advance Market Commitment mechanism.
At present more than 180 candidate vaccines are at some stage of development.
Of these, 35 vaccine candidates are in human trials. Seven are in or entering phase III trials. There are several others currently in phase I or II, which will enter phase III in the coming two months.
We expect the results from phase III trials to begin to come in at the end of the year.
Given this timeline, we expect doses to begin arriving in countries by early to mid-next year and aim to equitably distribute 2 billion doses globally by the end of 2021.
Once developed, a COVID-19 vaccine must be considered a global public good to be accessed by all.
The first doses will be limited and must be prioritized for vulnerable groups like workers in health-care and social settings and older persons.
But vaccine nationalism has created a real risk that all people in some countries will receive the vaccine first, leaving high-risk groups elsewhere vulnerable.
To prevent that from happening, additional global buy-in to the COVAX Facility’s Advance Market Commitment mechanism is required.
WHO is working with countries in the South-East Asia Region and globally to develop supportive policies and delivery channels with a focus on four priorities:
First, promoting investments in quality immunization systems and primary care.
Second, providing credible information on the safety and benefits of vaccines.
Third, supporting countries to ensure that health workers are well trained and ready and able to respond to questions or concerns from the community.
And fourth, engaging and supporting local community influencers to build trust in vaccines.
The development of a safe and effective vaccine will indeed be a great aid in controlling and ultimately ending this pandemic.
But over the coming months – and even once a vaccine has been developed – countries must continue to aggressively apply the basic public health measures that have already saved millions of lives and reduced the damage and disruption that this virus is capable of.
Thank you.