The World Health Organisation is drawing plans to help decide who gets the Covid-19 vaccine first once it is approved according to reports.
The UN-led health agency is drawing up plans to decide who should get the vaccine first once it is approved, Reuters reported. The priority will be given to frontline workers and medics along with people more vulnerable because of age or other comorbidities and illness. People in high transmission settings such as care homes and prisons will also be prioritized, it said.
The health agency is hoping that hundreds of millions of vaccines get produced this year and 2 billion by the end of 2021.
“I’m hopeful, I’m optimistic. But vaccine development is a complex undertaking, it comes with a lot of uncertainty,” said chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan as quoted by the report. “The good thing is, we have many vaccines and platforms so even if the first one fails, or the second ones fails, we shouldn’t lose hope, we shouldn’t give up,” she added.
Currently, there are over 10 vaccine candidates in human trials. Most recently, researchers at the Imperial College of London began human trials for its new coronavirus vaccine.
The study will provide two doses of the vaccine to 300 healthy volunteers over the coming weeks.
China has five vaccine candidates in clinical trials. Other front runners include AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate developed in partnership with Oxford University and the vaccine candidate by US’ Moderna.
AstraZeneca had recently inked major deals to supply millions of vaccine doses of its vaccine candidate to countries across the world.
The pharma giant had also begun mass production of its vaccine candidate earlier this month and had inked major deals with the UK, the United States, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the global vaccine alliance Gavi for 700 million doses as per previous reports.
Thank you for being a loyal user of Portfolio.
Portfolio will be a paid section hereon.
Please Subscribe to get access to one of our early bird packs.
Or click on Free Trial to get 14 days free trial.
What You'll Get
-
Web + Mobile
Access exclusive content of the Hindu Businessline across desktops, tablet and mobile device.
-
Exclusive Portfolio and Investment Advice, Banking, Lifestyle and Specials
Get diverse set of perspectives from our trusted experts on Portfolio, Banking, Economy, Environment and others.
-
Ad free experience
Experience cleaner site with zero ads and faster load times.
-
Personalised dashboard
Customize your preference and get a personalized recommendation of stories based on your interest.
Published on
June 19, 2020
A letter from the Editor
Dear Readers,
The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.
Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.
In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.
We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.
But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.
I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.
A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!
Support Quality Journalism