Copenhagen, Denmark:
Europe and pharma groups have to work with each other to speed up Covid-19 vaccinations, the head of the European branch of the World Health Organization stated Friday, expressing concern about the effectiveness of vaccines on virus variants.
“We have to be prepared” for new problematic mutations of the virus “by expanding countries’ capacity for genomic sequencing”, WHO Europe director Hans Kluge told AFP in an interview.
In the European Union, just 2.5 % of the population has received a very first vaccine dose, even though announcements by quite a few laboratories of improved vaccine deliveries has raised hopes of an acceleration.
“We need to join up to speed up vaccinations … with otherwise competing pharmaceutical companies joining efforts to drastically increase production capacity… that’s what we need,” he stated.
Asked regardless of whether the vaccines readily available because December would be helpful against new virus variants, Kluge replied: “That’s the big question. I’m concerned.
“It’s a cruel reminder that the virus nevertheless has the upper hand on the human getting.”
While the fight against the pandemic now appears more challenging than in December when the first vaccines became available, Kluge remained optimistic.
“I’ll be sincere, I believe that the tunnel is a small bit longer than what I believed at the finish of December, but it is going to be manageable, more preventable this year.”
He reiterated the WHO’s call for rich countries to show solidarity toward poor nations unable to buy vaccines, urging the wealthy ones to share their doses after having inoculated a portion of their own population.
“Maybe if EU nations vaccinate 20 % of their population — 20 % would imply elderly people today, overall health care workers, people today with comorbidity — if they hit 20 % perhaps that is the moment that they can currently get started to share some vaccines,” he recommended.
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