This Friday April 30, 2021, the World Health Organization announced in a press release they have added Moderna’s vaccine to the growing list of vaccines approved by WHO for emergency use. This is the fifth Covid vaccine approved by WHO, after Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca’s two serums, and Johnson&Johnson-Janssen.
For the record, the World Health Organization has instated the Covax platform in order to sent vaccines to disadvantaged countries. Such emergency approval enables to ask for additional doses of vaccines for the countries as they cannot assess the effectiveness of a vaccine nor the possibility to order vaccines themselves. “WHO’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL) assesses the quality, safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and is a prerequisite for COVAX Facility vaccine supply”, WHO adds in their release.
Already approved in the European Union, in the United Kingdom, in North America, Singapore, and Israel, American Moderan’s Covid-19 vaccine is 94.1% effective against Covid, WHO said, and is expected to see its production rate improved. As a matter of fact, the American company has stated they are intending to “produce up to three billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines in 2022” worldwide by investing in European subcontractors – in Switzerland to produce the active ingredient, and in Spain for packaging.
The two Chinese vaccines, namely Sinovac and Sinopharm, are expected to know WHO’s decision very soon about their approvals.
