WHO Chief: Vaccine Could be Ready by Year-end

Is the Supply Chain Ready to Save the Day?The World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that a vaccine for Covid-19 might be ready by the end of 2020 in his final remarks to the WHO's Executive Board.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope."

In his speech, the director-general called for global solidarity in the bid to discover and disseminate the vaccine.

At present, nine potential vaccines are being experimented on at the WHO's Covax facility.

The WHO aims to distribute 2 billion doses of a working vaccine by the end of 2021, meaning while a vaccine may be ready by the end of 2020, it'll take at least a year to roll-out.

Will the supply chain be ready?

Despite the aims of the WHO, there are concerns regarding how the supply chain will fare in getting the vaccine to countries around the world.

The main difficulty the world is facing is that supply chains are already stretched and suffering under huge losses due to Covid-19.

Further still, any potential vaccine will need to be temperature controlled and this could prove to be difficult.

Read more: Is the Supply Chain Ready to Save the Day?