Work is on to develop COVID-19 Vaccine, says PAHO Director

Caribbean: While the Americas eagerly anticipates a discovery, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will solely assist the delivery of a vaccine that has confirmed to be reliable and efficient in clinical trials, examined by National Regulatory Authorities and endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), PAHO Director Carissa F Etienne, stated.

“It is essential to stress that while we’re operating to develop a vaccine quicker than ever since, the method to ensure its protection and efficiency is consistent,” Etienne described in a press conference in Washington, DC. She remarked that there is a pipeline of higher than 180 vaccine applicants understudy, with 11 in phase III clinical trials.

What has switched “is the unprecedented concentration on the vaccine development process,” she added, highlighting the “over-abundance of knowledge from a number of sources, some less credible than others and not based on science, which has led to uncertainty and misinformation about vaccine safety.”

The PAHO Director stressed that vaccines are designed and produced with safety in thought. Once a COVID-19 vaccine demonstrates safe and efficient in a clinical trial, regulatory agencies wholly assess the data before awarding approvals and WHO will also supervise an independent evaluation process before granting its own direction.

“How we interact about COVID-19 will offer our ability to manage the pandemic,” she said, calling for nations, the media, regulatory authorities, the private division and the scientific society to come unitedly to present the public with “clear, concise and science-based data regarding a future COVID-19 vaccine.”

An essential factor in building trust in the new vaccines is to secure their access to all nations, and PAHO is supporting nations to gain access to these vaccines by the COVAX department, Etienne transcribed.

“Practically every country in Latin America and the Caribbean has joined or is in the process of joining the facility,” she said, and nations are seeking legal and budgetary measures needed to engage in this innovative global partnership. “We are actively cooperating with financial organisations, like the Inter-American Development Bank, to assist nations in our region access the funding required to purchase vaccines by the COVAX Facility when they are ready. Etienne continued.

“PAHO’s Revolving Fund, with more than 40 years of expertise providing affordable and quality vaccines to nations in Latin American and the Caribbean, will be, forward with UNICEF, the acquisition mechanism for the COVAX facility,” she said.

In the Caribbean, 11 nations will take financial assistance for initial amounts to join the COVAX facility, she said, in collaboration with the Caribbean Public Health Agency and the European Union.

The PAHO Director regarded that there have been above 40 million cases and above 1.1 million deaths worldwide due to COVID-19, including 18.9 million cases in the Region of the Americas and beyond 610,000 deaths as of October 20. “Over our Region, about 100,000 people proceed to test positive for COVID-19 each day,” Etienne told.

Courses showcase growing in the United States and Canada and plateauing across Central America, while most maximum new cases in the Caribbean are similar to non-essential international trip, Etienne remarked.

These inclinations demonstrate that while the region is “hard at work developing for a vaccine, we must also maintain a strong and steady route to remain fighting the virus without one.”

She called upon all nations to “prioritize a clear and proactive information approach for COVID-19. The people of our region desire clear direction. Communicating efficiently and consistently regarding what they can do to guard themselves and evade infection persists vital.”

Etienne continued that “Testing, healing and isolating cases, as well as tracking contacts are all part of a good monitoring strategy and too few nations are doing this well in our region. It is as significant now as it was in April. And it will be still more relevant once we have a vaccine.”