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The organization's chief scientist expresses her hope that at least "a couple" of the 20 vaccine candidates will work.
The chief scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO), Soumya Swaminathan, has indicated that the vaccine against covid-19 could be on the market available to health authorities in mid-2021.
In an interview with dpa, the expert expressed her hope that at least "a couple" of the 20 vaccine candidates will work. "It would be very unfortunate if all of them fail. It is possible to have results at the beginning of 2021. So at the beginning of the new year we could eventually have a vaccine. Then it has to be manufactured and scaled up. So if we are very practical, then we are looking at mid-2021 when we will have a vaccine that can be widely deployed. Of course, it is impossible to predict if we assume that there is a 10 percent chance of success for each of the candidates, it still means that one or two vaccines could be successful. , maybe more," he commented.
In any case, he does not know which of the vaccines being investigated will work: "At the moment, we have absolutely no idea which one will be successful. Our approach is that vaccine testing should be done for as many candidates as possible." so that you have the best chance of success. The scale of interest and the scale of investment is very good, but we have certain criteria.
In this sense, he has insisted that "it is not enough for 20 or 30 percent of vaccinated people to be protected, that will not put an end to this pandemic." "We need a vaccine that offers approximately 70 percent protection and is safe," he added.
Swaminathan has highlighted that the development of the vaccine is being "very rapid." "This is the fastest timeline we have seen compared to any other disease. From the time the RNA sequence of the virus was published in January to the first vaccine trial in March, it was less than three months. That has never been done before. Phase III trials may be completed within a year of the start of vaccine development. That would be an achievement and a cause for celebration. III does not necessarily mean that the vaccine is effective, safe and ready to be used," he pointed out.
Finally, the researcher has also assessed the different studies that have shown that antibody levels seem to decrease rapidly after infection. In this sense, she has pointed out that the fact that neutralizing antibodies disappear "does not mean that immunity has disappeared."
"The different modes of immunity against this virus are still being discovered. There are also reports indicating that the cell-mediated immune response (the T cell response) may be very important. In addition, some memory cells develop. These cells They can be reactivated when you are exposed to the virus again and induce an immune response. What we know about natural infections is that most people develop antibodies, they develop immunity. that a vaccine will also give you immunity. So far we have not heard of any case in which there is a second infection," he concluded.
