WHO COVID Debrief on global coronavirus vaccine efforts
‘This is going to be a test of our humanity.’
In the first episode of WHO COVID Debrief, a series developed in partnership with the World Health Organization, we hear from WHO Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan about global coronavirus vaccine efforts.
“We are seeing unprecedented global efforts in vaccine development for COVID-19. We have at least 200 candidates in some stage of clinical or pre-clinical development. And about 24 candidates that have now entered clinical trials in human beings,” Dr Swaminathan says.
“Of course, all new vaccines have to be tested through various phases of clinical trials, starting with safety trials, what we call phase one in small numbers of individuals, and then proceeding to phase two and then phase three trials where the efficacy of the vaccine or how it can protect somebody from getting the infection is tested along with the safety of the vaccine in tens of thousands of people.”
This episode was produced and edited by Al Jazeera NewsFeed’s Katya Bohdan.