WHO asks Moderna and Pfizer to share their messenger RNA technology

THE director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, asked the pharmaceutical companies, Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech, that have developed covid vaccines with the new messenger RNA or mRNA technology to share this knowledge.

“I urge you to do so so that we can accelerate the development of new production and build as soon as possible more vaccine manufacturing centres that accelerate the global manufacture of doses,” Tedros told a press conference, a week after the creation of one of these centres in South Africa was announced. Facilities similar to the one in South Africa are being prepared in other countries, “but this can be accelerated if companies openly share this technology,” he said, addressing Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.

As reported by Malaga Hoy, the head of the WHO reiterated his hope that by mid-2022 70% of the world population will have been vaccinated, a percentage with which it is calculated that global group immunity against COVID-19 could be achieved. “It is the best way to stop the pandemic, save lives, achieve a truly global economic recovery and avoid the dangers that the emergence of new variants of the coronavirus can entail,” he said.

An intermediate objective, also expressed by Tedros previously, is to achieve in September of this year that at least 10% of the population of all countries is vaccinated against COVID-19, which would cover at least the groups with the highest risk, including health workers, the elderly, chronically ill, etc. “This will effectively put an end to the most acute stage of the pandemic and save many lives,” Tedros stressed at a press conference, in which he announced that more than 3,000 million doses have already been administered worldwide. In order to achieve herd immunity at least 10 billion doses would be required.