The chief medical officer of England has warned that it is not likely that an effective coronavirus or COVID-19 vaccine is going to be made available before winter next year. Professor Chris Whitty said he was confident about the efficiency of science to help and tackle the disease but it will not be in the next few weeks or months.
The top medical officer mentioned that there can be a vaccine ready before winter of 2021-2022 but still there is no certainty about it. "I would obviously be delighted if it came earlier rather than later but I'd be quite surprised if we had a highly effective vaccine ready for mass use in a large percentage of the population before the end of winter, certainly before this side of Christmas," he mentioned.
Vaccine Not Before a Year?
"Now that may be wrong, a lot of people are doing a huge amount scientifically, logistically to make sure that's a pessimistic statement, to try and see if we can get a vaccine at an extraordinarily fast speed but we have to check it works and we have to make sure it's safe and these things do take time" he added as quoted by Metro.
He claimed that it will be logical to expect an effective and safe vaccine not before a year. The medic also mentioned that the risk of children catching the virus and witnessing long term health problems are not that much.
The virus outbreak has created a major stir around the world in recent times infecting more than 23.2 million people globally and claiming the lives of over 805,000 people worldwide. More than 100 vaccine candidates are currently under different stages of trails.
Russia, on the other hand, has already registered a vaccine named Sputnik V, which it claims to be the first one to tackle the outbreak. Experts around the world have raised questions regarding the safety od the Russian vaccine as they claimed it did not undergo proper trials.
