‘Amazing science, but no global coordination’: WHO’s chief scientist on Covid-19

The scientific achievements in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic are commendable, but there was no global coordination on some of the issues and many countries failed to adhere to the framework put forth by the World Health Organisation, Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist, said on Thursday.

At a BioAsia 2022 panel discussion, she said although several high-end countries have completed vaccinations to the extent of 90 percent, many African nations have only completed 10 percent inoculations at a time when vaccine supply has become easier worldwide.

‘While the scientific achievements have been absolutely outstanding, in that we’ve developed a vaccine in less than a year; this went awry because of the lack of global coordination and harmonized approaches to pandemics, for instance, travel restrictions, which didn’t help with the outbreak,’ she said referring to the reaction to travel restrictions imposed on South Africa after a new variant of COVID-19 was identified.

Though the world has overcome the acute supply shortage that was seen throughout the year 2021, the challenge is still enormous since there are many countries that are not capable of mounting such a massive vaccination program. WHO is also exploring the possibility of developing variant-proof vaccines, and she suggested there is a need for a distributed manufacturing network around the world.

In a panel discussion he also participated in, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant opined that the government must encourage research and development and sectors such as biopharmaceuticals in an effort to help India transform from a low-value, high-volume player to a high-value, high-volume player in the global pharma market.

‘We are examining the ways to strengthen the system for and push for greater industry academy academic collaborations. There is a need to promote innovation, global partnerships, and knowledge sharing amongst our scientific community,’ he said. Bharat Biotech International Limited’s chairman and managing director Krishna Ella said that some regulatory processes should be simplified in order to move forward quickly with product development.