The World Health Organization warns that none of the vaccines developed so far are up to the standard needed for distribution • Research: The Russian vaccine has developed antibodies in volunteers
Russian vaccine for corona // Photo: AFP
The World Health Organization announced today (Friday) that it does not anticipate a mass and widespread vaccination against the corona virus before May of next year, the organization's spokeswoman Margaret Harris said.
According to Harris, none of the vaccines developed and tried so far have shown "clear signs" of their effectiveness at the level required by the organization's standards.
"We do not expect to see widespread vaccination of large populations at least until the middle of next year," Harris said during a United Nations conference in Geneva.
"The third stage in which most vaccines are currently being developed must be longer, this is because we need to see that the vaccine does work and how safe it is to use," Harris added, referring to the large trials recently conducted on thousands of people.
Harris called on companies and countries to cooperate and share information, as part of the World Health Organization's immunization program.
"A lot of people have been vaccinated recently and what we do not know is whether the vaccine works. At this point I have no clear sign that any vaccine is approaching the required level of efficacy and safety."
Meanwhile, Russia today released a study showing that the vaccine developed by drug companies and research institutes in the country was able to develop antibodies among subjects who volunteered for vaccine trials.
According to the study, the vaccine caused side effects of fever and nausea in a small proportion of the subjects.
