Political commitments needed to ensure COVID-19 vaccines a public good: WHO

The World Health Organization said on Friday that political commitments are needed to ensure prospective COVID-19 vaccines a global public good.

"We hope that ... when a vaccine is available, we believe that it can be accessed by those who needs it, and we will do everything with our partners to make that happen," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a virtual press conference in Geneva.

"But I will repeat, political commitments by political leaders, by our leaders from the north and south, will be very crucial, and it will be at the center to realize and make sure that any vaccine that will be available to be a global public good," He emphasized.

He said that during many global conferences, "many leaders said that vaccines should be a global public good."

Tedros said the ACT Accelerator would help achieve that goal. "There were two objectives to be achieved by the ACT accelerator initiative: the first one is to accelerate the development of a product, it could be a vaccine, therapeutics or diagnostics tool, and the second objective is of course to ensure access, equitable distribution, access to those who needs it."

On April 24, the WHO launched the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, or the ACT Accelerator, a landmark collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics for COVID-19, according to a WHO press release earlier.