WHO's chief scientist confirmed people at highest risk will be prioritised with covid vaccine, while young and healthy will have to wait.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that when the vaccine will be ready, those at highest risk will be prioritized and therefore young and healthy individuals will probably have to wait until 2022 to have their turn.
Young and healthy may not have vaccine until 2022
As Germany reported the highest daily number of covid cases with 6,638 new infections, the WHO made an announcement from the words of Soumya Swaminathan, World Health Organization’s chief scientist, who confirmed that vaccine mass shots would be unlikely and that vaccine will be given to healthcare workers and people at highest risk first, which means young and healthy people will probably have to wait long, until 2022.
Swaminathan said: “Most people agree, it’s starting with healthcare workers, and frontline workers, but even there, you need to define which of them are at highest risk, and then the elderly, and so on. .. “There will be a lot of guidance coming out, but I think an average person, a healthy young person might have to wait until 2022 to get a vaccine.”
When will a vaccine be ready
WHO’s chief scientist said they are hoping a vaccine will be ready by 2021 but again confirmed it will only be available in “limited quantities”. Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca’s vaccine trial has been recently put on hold because of safety concerns. Swaminathan confirmed that with this global covid comeback, a mortality rate increase will also be following. She said: “Mortality increases always lag behind increasing cases by a couple of weeks. ..We shouldn’t be complacent that death rates are coming down.”
At the moment, global covid infections rate stands at 38.4 million with 1.09 million deaths. Restrictions and mini lockdowns, as the ones imposed in Scotland and in Northern Irland, are being imposed in other countries and many more are to come.
