2 Billion Doses of Corona Vaccines Ready for Poorer Countries

In an effort to make sure that all countries in need have access to Coronavirus vaccines, the World Health Organization (WHO) was able to secure some 2 billion doses of promising vaccine candidates.

“This is fantastic news and a milestone in global health,” says WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The 190 countries that take part in the COVAX initiative will have access to vaccines “during the first half of next year.” Partners are “working non-stop to start vaccination early next year.”

The COVAX program doesn’t include vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech currently used in Canada, the U.S., Britain, and soon, the European Union, but rather by the pharmaceutical industries AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and the Serum Institute of India. According to the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, it is in the world’s best interest to have a global immunization since “nature always strikes back. If we don’t eradicate the disease, a virus can mutate. And vaccines that at a certain moment are effective can no longer be effective if things change.”