The roll-out of vaccines to fight the Covid-19 pandemic will not by itself eradicate the deadly coronavirus, the World Health Organization stated on Friday.
The WHO warned against complacency and what it stated was an erroneous belief that since vaccines are on the close to-horizon, the crisis is more than.
“Vaccines do not equal zero Covid,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual news conference.
“Vaccines and vaccination will add a major, major, powerful tool to the tool kit that we have. But by themselves, they will not do the job.”
Britain on Wednesday became the 1st Western nation to approve a vaccine for common use, piling stress on other nations to adhere to suit swiftly.
WHO director-common Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that progress on vaccines “gives us all a lift and we can now start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
“However, WHO is concerned that there is a developing perception that the pandemic is more than.
“Many places are witnessing very high transmission of the virus, which is putting enormous pressure on hospitals, intensive care units and health workers.”
Global coronavirus infections passed 65 million on Friday.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1.5 million individuals considering that the outbreak emerged in China final December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.
– ‘Life and death’ –
“The pandemic still has a long a way to run and decisions made by leaders and citizens in the coming days will determine both the course of the virus in the short term and when this pandemic will ultimately end,” stated Tedros.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, added that these choices “can mean life and death for us, life and death for our family”.
According to the WHO’s overview of candidate vaccines, 51 are at present becoming tested on humans, 13 of which have reached final-stage mass testing.
A additional 163 candidate vaccines are becoming created in laboratories with a view to eventual human trials.
“I have seen vaccines transform the world and change the course of epidemics, and I fully expect that these vaccines and the ones that are to come will do that,” Ryan stated.
But he warned that individuals required to recognise that the vaccine “will not be with everyone early next year”.
Health workers, the elderly and individuals with underlying situations will get priority — a selection that “will take a lot of the sorrow out of this pandemic. But it will not, by itself, end transmission,” stated Ryan.
Tedros stated he was content to be vaccinated on camera to enable market public self-confidence, but would not jump the queue to do so.
“I would be happy to do it” but “I have to make sure it’s my turn”, he stated.