By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has said that a task force has been formed to develop strategy to ensure reliable access to Covid-19 vaccine. In a tweet on Thursday, Mirza said, “We have formed the National Vaccine Task Force, which will develop and execute our strategy to ensure early, equitable and reliable access to COVID-19 vaccine(s) in Pakistan.”
He said it is unlikely that a coronavirus vaccine will emerge this year despite multiple candidates being developed to treat Covid-19. “It is unlikely that a vaccine will become available anytime soon, not in this year at least it seems,” he tweeted.
According to Dr Mirza, so far there have been roughly 150 vaccine initiatives across the world. He said that close to a dozen of those vaccines are in the “advanced stage”, adding that Pakistan is closely monitoring the progress of those medications. The SAPM shared an article by the Financial Times published in May about a letter signed by over 140 public figures, including Prime Minister Imran Khan, calling for a “people’s vaccine” against coronavirus.
The letter, which was made public in May, insists that any eventual Covid-19 vaccines and treatments should be made available to everyone, free of charge. In the letter, the world leaders had also demanded that any vaccine should not be patented while the science should be shared between nations.
