WHO's professor rules out possibility of making COVID-19 vaccine before 2021

The chairperson of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, Professor Dale Fisher, said that a vaccine of COVID-19 will not be ready until the end of 2021 due to the necessary trails to guarantee safety and efficacy.

Dale Fisher explained that the timeline would be a “very reasonable” expectation because of the necessary Phase 2 and 3 trials of any vaccine to guarantee both safety and efficacy.

He urged the need to ramp up in production and distribution, as well as actually administering the vaccine.

 

Fisher said they were currently on target for a vaccine in 2021 with five Phase 1 studies currently underway, CNBC reported.

Professor Dale told CNBC’s ‘Street Signs Asia’ they always felt to be in Phase 1 studeis by about April or May which meant to be a potential vaccine’s invention while the scientists were now trying it on individuals to see if it is safe.

The current trials would allow “early collection of data” to assess whether the potential vaccine “actually works,” before larger trials on safety and efficacy could be carried out, said Fisher, who is also a senior consultant at the infectious disease division at the National University Hospital in Singapore.

The consultant, however, termed the statement of US President Donald Trump on last Sunday for making coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020 as ‘a bit premature’.

The preliminary results of clinical trials for Gilead Sciences’ antiviral remdesivir have been promising, indicating it could shorten the recovery time for hospitalized coronavirus patients.

The US Food and Drug Administration has since granted emergency use authorization for the drug.

Despite very positive information on remdesivir, it is still far from being the proven wonder drug we would love to see, according to Fisher.

But ultimately, the best defence against Covid-19 would be a vaccine which would “get immunity in the public to stop this,” Fisher said.

Natural herd immunity was not the way to go, he said. Herd immunity refers to a situation where enough people in a population have become immune to a disease such that it effectively stops the disease from spreading.

Until a vaccine is ready, each individual has to understand the role they have to play in public health, Fisher said. He emphasized that there needs to be continual “messaging” on that.

Instead of just relying on contact tracing measures, simple efforts including social distancing, presenting oneself at hospitals and not heading out when sick were “so important” and necessary, Fisher said.