A vaccine is considered vital in building widespread immunity to the coronavirus, which would allow restrictions on life to be lifted. But there are fears that vaccine developers worldwide are moving too fast, and in doing so, compromising the safety and efficiency of the product.
“Just because we talk about speed and scale doesn’t mean we start compromising or cutting corners on what would normally be assessed,” the WHO’s Dr Soumya Swaminathan said on Wednesday.
“The process still has to follow through rules of the game. For drugs and vaccines which are given to people, you have to test their safety, first and foremost,” she said.
Dr Swaminathan issued the plea after the trial of a leading candidate for a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University was paused due to concerns over side effects. AstraZeneca described it as a “routine” pause.
Western experts have also raised concerns about the safety of Russia’s fast-track vaccine, which entered its third phase of trials on Wednesday.
