The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said that although there’s a rush to discover effective vaccines that can help prevent people from the new coronavirus infection, there might never be a “silver bullet” for the same, reported Reuters.
“A number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference from the U.N. body’s headquarters in Geneva. “However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment — and there might never be.”
Mr. Tedros urged people around the world to comply with measures such as social distancing, hand-washing and mask-wearing.
“The message to people and governments is clear: ‘Do it all’,” the WHO head said.
According to a Reuters tally, more than 18.14 million people around the world are reported to have been infected with the disease and 690,000 have died.
Mr. Tedros said that, while the coronavirus was the greatest wellbeing crisis since the mid-twentieth century, the universal scramble for an antibody was additionally “extraordinary”. Be that as it may, he underscored vulnerabilities.
Notably, the WHO’s advance investigation team was not yet back from China, where the virus originated.
The WHO officials said a larger team of Chinese and international experts is planned next to study the origins of the virus in the city of Wuhan, although the timing and composition of that is not yet clear. It is not yet known when the investigation will begin.
Tedros said mothers with suspected or confirmed coronavirus infection should be encouraged to continue breastfeeding as the benefits, he said, “substantially” outweighed the risks of infection.
The WHO has already declared the coronavirus pandemic as the biggest global health emergency since the early 20th century. The United States, Brazil, India, and Russia are among the worst-hit countries from the pandemic.
